Design for peace: origin of the UN emblem.

Donal McLaughlin, Chief of the Graphics Presentation Branch of the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) at the end of the Second World War, has written a personal account of his participation in the two-month international conference that preceded the adoption of the United Nations Charter in June 1945. The following excerpts from that memoir focus on the origin of the familiar blue-and-white UN emblem and a backstage view of the Charter signing in the Herbst Theater of the Veterans War Memorial Building, which Mr McLaughlin helped arrange. Mr. McLaughlin, an architect and a graphic designer was born in 1907 and lives in Garrett Park, Maryland. A graduate of New York City public schools, the Yale School of Architecture and the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, he worked on designs for exhibits for the 1939 New York World's Fair, suburban department stores and the interior design of Tiffany's 57th Street store in Manhattan.

Early in 1945, our Presentation Branch was asked by Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr. (who became a representative of the United States during the first session of the UN General Assembly) to work on the forthcoming United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO). As Chief of the Graphics Division and Art Director, it was my good fortune to be assigned to design a lapel pin for conference identification.

The design of the lapel pin - which unknown to us then would become the United Nations emblem - had a special meaning and significance for all of us in the Presentation Branch. United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt's idea of a United Nations was being hailed everywhere. Well, maybe not everywhere. But certainly among all liberals. And we were all young liberals.

I invited a brainstorming session so that our whole staff could have a crack at solving the "problem" of the lapel pin. The problem: how to incorporate a pictorial image along with the words, "The United Nations Conference on international Organization, San Francisco, 1945" (quite a mouthful) in a one and one-sixteenth-inch-diameter circle. The manufacturer had agreed to make the pin on condition that we use their stock lapel pin in view of the shortage of time. In other words, no odd or irregular shapes.

Some of the designs that came out of this session, and the problems that came with them, were as follows:

One design showed a globe surrounded by chains representing nations linked in peace. The problem was that it also depicted a world in chains. Another showed a chimney-like brick structure out of which protruded an olive branch. The symbolism was: nations bonded with the mortar of cooperation, with bricks guarding the olive branch of peace. We felt it could be a trademark for a clay products corporation.

Another showed an orthographic global projection. The Eastern hemisphere got the short end of that design.

A fourth design showed two hemisphere projections overlapping. We labelled this one "hackneyed", made famous on a well-known mustard brand label.

Of all the world projections, the most appropriate was the azimuthal equidistant one, wherein all land masses are shown on one circle. We had used it earlier, around the time of El Alamein, when the course of the war was going against the Allies and Wendell Wilkie made his famous "One World" speech. We were doing charts for air distances for bombing, as I remember it, and wherever you went had to be approached via the North Pole.

While our brainstorming had produced a number of designs, none seemed really suitable. After this stalemate, and with time running short, I retired to my office and finally came up with a solution that, simple as it may seem, provided a breakthrough. By liberating the elements from the tyranny of the circle, I was able to accommodate both the text and a "one world projection" in an unusual and distinctive way, while still rendering the copy comfortable to read.

I gave the rough design to staff artist Ivan Spear to draw up. He added the softening touch of crossed branches of laurel. Later, recognizing that laurel was the symbol of victory, I asked Joe Krush to change the leaves to olive for peace on the final artwork. The State Department promptly approved the design.

We mixed a colour for the field, a smoky blue not found in any member nation's flag, and christened it Stettinius Blue in honour of the head of our delegation. Floating on a sea of pure white was the bright gold of the land areas, the wreath, and the text. The pin, which we also called the button or badge, was made of jeweller's enamel.

An identical pin, but substituting flame red instead of smoky blue, was struck for identifying members of the press.

An enlarged working drawing of the design was shipped post-haste to Bastian Brothers in Rochester, New York. I don't remember the size of the order - certainly several thousands - but shipment had to go directly to San Francisco, so I never had a chance to check out the final pin.

As our train neared San Francisco my concern continued to mount. Upon arrival, it was with feelings of faintness and anxiety that I approached the registration desk to get my credentials. I'll not forget my first look at the pin. Wow, it was beautiful! I still have it.

The Design Becomes Official

I resigned from the OSS and opened a graphic design office in Washington. I didn't hear any news of the UN emblem for almost a full year. Then, on August 7, 1946, I got a call from Dave Zablodowsky, acting Chief of the UN Presentation Service in New York. It seemed that the General Assembly needed to approve the emblem, which had been stamped in gold on the cover of the Charter. To make it official, the matter was coming up for a vote, and Dave asked if I had any suggestions for improving the design. I immediately mailed back three thoughts, to wit:

(1) For aesthetic and political reasons, shift the land masses a quarter turn to the left.

(2) Extend the map to include the rest of Chile, Argentina and New Zealand.

(3) Add new parallels of latitude to strengthen the circular pattern.

Two of these "before and afters" have been the subject of some speculation. I originally designed the pin with the United States on the vertical axis. Our source map showed North America in this position. There was no question in my mind that the honour of being the host nation at the birth of the UN called for this.

So it was in the spirit of noblesse oblige that we shifted North America to the left, giving more balance to the design, and making it so that the map didn't look upside down to the Soviets. Zablodowsky noted that the quarter swing to the left fortuitously landed the vertical position on the international Date Line, one of the first instances of genuine international action.

Zablodowsky dwelt more at length on including all of Chile, Argentina and New Zealand on the final emblem. The only reason they had been omitted from the original was that our Rand McNally source didn't extend that far south and we had been in too much of a hurry to find one that did. Argentina and Chile were never "lopped off", as a Heraid Tribune article on the new emblem reported.

The revised design was presented to the Assembly. The "Stettinius Blue" was changed to a brighter blue, the official color of a dozen national flags. It was approved without a hitch.

December 1946 ... Adopted

The design was adopted as the Organization's official seal and emblem on 7 December 1946, when the Assembly adopted resolution 92 (I). Officially, it is described as a "map of the world representing an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, inscribed in a wreath consisting of crossed conventionalized branches of the olive tree, in gold, on a field of smoke blue with all the water areas in white". Secretary-General Trygve Lie had suggested that the new world body adopt the San Francisco logo as its official emblem. It was modified to include all countries to the sixtieth parallel, instead of the fortieth; the meridian of Greenwich was made, its vertical axis to represent countries as accurately as possible in their proper relation to the cardinal points; and five concentric circles, instead of four, were included.