Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was founded in 1958 against the backdrop of the Cold War with the aim of disabling nuclear weapons, encouraging peace and redirecting nuclear funds elsewhere. Over 65 years later that mission remains urgent as geopolitical tensions amplify the ongoing threat of nuclear warfare.

During that time, the organisation has used protest, education and political campaigning to further its calls for nuclear disarmament. However, CND realised that if it wanted to continue spreading its message in any meaningful way in the modern day, it would need to overhaul how it communicated with its audience.

CND has revealed a new visual identity created with the help of Rounded, a design consultancy focused on the non-profit, education and cultural sectors.

At the heart of CND’s identity refresh is the peace symbol. The motif has become universal shorthand for peace, to the point that some younger generations may not be aware that it was first designed for CND by Gerald Holtom in 1958. “I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad,” he later said. “I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle around it.”

The symbol is so ubiquitous that it’s unsurprising that over time many versions of the logo came into existence. Going forward there will only be two iterations, which have been refined by Rounded: a classic outlined version, which will serve as the logo, and another impactful secondary design that uses negative space, based on a design that the team believes to have been first created by Ken Garland.

The identity also includes a stripped-back colour palette of black and white punctuated by bold flashes of yellow – a reference to nuclear warning signs. This is paired with accessible open source typefaces and a new set of icons drawing on the CND logo.

Garland continued to create work for CND throughout the 1960s, contributing to a strong visual legacy that also benefitted from graphic artist Peter Kennard and designer David King over the years. The team at Rounded wanted to respect this visual history and the supporters who have been contributing to the cause over the decades.

However it was important to evolve the identity for newer audiences, particularly as it prepares to launch a new membership recruitment campaign, which Rounded has also worked on. Their hope is to enlist artists to work on campaigns and merchandise in the future, furthering CND’s own legacy and its broader mission to end nuclear warfare.

 

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