The organizers of the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco , California wanted an insignia that could be made into a pin to identify delegates that could also be used as a logo for the international event . United States Secretary of State Edward Stettinius , Jr. was chairman of the U.S. delegation , and realized that a temporary design might become the permanent symbol of the United Nations . He formed a committee headed by Oliver Lundquist that developed a design consisting of a world map surrounded by leaves from a design created by McLaughlin . McLaughlin and his fellow designers came up with about nine different designs . The one they chose had to fit on a circular pin that was one and one-sixteenth inches in diameter and McLaughlin referred back to his thesis , shifting the projection off center so that all of the countries fit . The continents were surrounded by olive branches to represent peace with the name , location and date of the conference on the outer edge
United Nations Conference on International Organization
United Nations Conference on International Organization
Donal McLaughlin