Album Cover of Pink Floyd “The Dark Side of the Moon"

While studying color theory I had an epiphany about this Pink Floyd Album cover. I always knew that it held some greater meaning, but it was more along the lines of what light, triangles, and rainbows had something more to do with the “The Dark Side of the Moon” literally. I now realize that it did just not in the way that I originally thought. Lets look a little at what David A. Lauer refers to as “The Essentials” of color theory.

The fundamental truth of color theory is that color is not merely an object, but rather a property of light (Lauer 252). In the seventeenth century, Sir Isaac Newton established this property by the placement of white light through a prism. Once placed through the prism, the white light was broken up into the rainbow of hues. This image is captured on the album cover above where the white light is entering the prism and comes out looking like a rainbow.

Sir Isaac Newton showed that color is reflected off of objects by their ability to reflect rays of white light rather than having their own color. So in other words, as light changes, so does the color. This is why many people in the world of art and design have to take classes on light and lighting. They must consider how light will play a role in and what the effects will be on what is being designed. Subtle changes in light can alter and affect the color of a work or design.

Take Claude Monet’s paintings (view at: http://www.squidoo.com/monet-rouen) of the Rouen Cathedral at different times of the day and during different seasons. Each painting shows the difference in the lighting of each day and the time of day he painted through the colors he used. The paintings depict how light reflected color off the cathedral playing a key role in each paintings unique and different coloring of the same image. Monet’s paintings depict the fundamental idea of color theory that color is a result of light and changes as light itself changes.

Now back to the source of inspiration, the album cover. Pink Floyd’s album cover shows that color changes according to light. By suggesting that this is “The Dark Side of the Moon”, there is no light and similarly no color. Likewise, the picture of white light entering a prism to portray color reinforces the necessity of light for there to be color. This album has been teaching the masses the key to color theory since its creation. However, in my case, I needed the color theory lesson to understand the art.

Photo of prism and white light courtesy of Ross Howard's Myspace :

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/SheriffBart101/prism-and-refraction-of-light-into-.jpg

Photo above of Pink Floyd album cover borrowed from google images:

http://www.abc.net.au/myfavouritealbum/albumart/img/darkside.jpg

Information on Color Theory from Design Basics by Davis A. Lauer