The rainbow on Dark Side of the Moon is a prism, not a rainbow.

It’s a prism splitting white light into a spectrum — a deliberate visual pun on the album’s themes of perception, madness, and the full range of human experience.

The design came from Storm Thorgerson’s studio, Hypgnosis. They shot a photograph of a prism refracting light, then rejected the first attempt because the band wanted a cleaner, more iconic image. The triangle on the cover echoes the band’s earlier logo (the triangle from A Saucerful of Secrets) and the pyramid imagery they’d used live. But the real genius is the back cover: the spectrum recombines into white light, suggesting a cycle — life, death, rebirth, or just a really good light show.

It’s not about gay pride or rainbows. It’s literally about light. And it’s one of the few album covers that actually means something.