As a kid, I was always drawing, painting, or creating art and recognized for my artistic talent, by my teachers and fellow students throughout my primary school years. I must have been around nine years old when I first saw a peace symbol. I liked it's design and embraced it after learning it was the universal symbol for Peace. Years later I saw the Peace symbol turned upside down and after doing a little research, it made more sense to rotate it 180 degrees. It wasn't until 2001 that I learned about the designer of the Peace symbol, Gerald Holtom, and his thoughts on its orientation.

The history of the Peace symbol goes back to the 1950’s when a group of anti-nuclear activists from the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, in England, organized a march to protest the nuclear arms build-up by the United States, England, and the U.S.S.R. The symbol was designed for the protest by a graphic designer named, Gerald Holtom, who was also an anti-nuclear arms activist. What most people don't know about the symbol is that after the buttons with the symbol were made and worn during the protest in the orientation with the three prongs pointing downward Holtom decided it should be rotated 180 degrees with the prongs stretched upward toward the sky, like the tree of life and representing hope. 

‘Gerald Holtom died in 1985, and according to [Ken] Kolsbun [author of "Peace: The Biography of a Symbol,”] which was published in 2008 on the 50th anniversary of the symbol, who corresponded with him during the 1970s, Holtom asked that his tombstone depict the peace symbol he created, only with a twist:

"On his tombstone, he wanted the symbol inverted; in other words, instead of drooping arms, he wanted the arms of his peace symbol to be pointed upward," says Kolsbun. "In his mind, this symbolized the Tree of Life. In symbology, when a symbol points downward that means someone has died, so I think later in life, he realized he wanted it to point up like the Tree of Life, where mankind lives."

Unfortunately, Holtom's revised peace symbol didn't make it onto his tombstone, but the first iteration of his work has certainly made an impression on the world.'

Gerald Holtom never copyrighted the symbol and the people of the world are the beneficiaries of that. Today, it is probably the most ubiquitous, recognizable symbol of Peace throughout the world.

Resources:
The Peace Sign: From No Nukes Logo to Anti-war Symbol
Behind The Peace Symbol