From mentalfloss.com: “A lot of people think that the distress signal is an abbreviation for “save our souls” or “save our ship.” But in reality, “save our souls” and “save our ship” are backronyms, and the letters don’t actually stand for anything. In fact, the signal isn’t even really supposed to be three individual letters. It’s just a continuous Morse code string of three dots, three dashes, and three dots all run together with no spaces or full stops (…—…). Since three dots form the letter “S” and three dashes form an “O” in International Morse code, though, the signal came to be called an “SOS” for the sake of convenience. That connection has led to the letters coming into their own as a visual distress signal divorced from Morse Code, and those in need of rescue sometimes spell them out on the ground to be seen from above.” https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31911/what-does-sos-stand.
When the society was being named, I wanted something that represented the historical context of mental health struggles, and also reflected the need for and our commitment to mental health improvement. My father was also in the Canadian Navy, and while looking through his books one day I found an old morse code manual from when he was in training. The logo was thoughtfully designed with these things in mind by my very talented friend Kim at Lion’s Eye Studio. The life preserver represents our goal to extend a hand to those in distress. The green crosses inside the shields represent mental health first aid. The ship needed to be included mostly for how cool it looks.
We hope it sends out the right message about our goal: to be a lifeline, a guide in the sea of mental health first aid.