After graphic designer George Hardie provided his expertise, Hipgnosis presented the prism design along with some others ideas to the band (including a design that featured the Marvel Comics hero the Silver Surfer). One night, Thorgerson showed Powell a black-and-white photograph of a prism with a color beam projected through it - an image heвЂ™d also noticed in a physics textbook. (Hipgnosis had been given minimal creative direction by the band other than a suggestion by keyboardist Richard Wright to вЂњdo something clean, elegant and graphic.вЂќ) As discussed in Mark BlakeвЂ™s Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd, the original design emerged from PowellвЂ™s and ThorgersonвЂ™s practice of conducting brainstorming sessions that stretched from late evening until 4:00 a.m. The Dark Side of the Moon design is another product of the fertile creative team of Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis, who are responsible for creating some of rockвЂ™s most memorable album covers, such as Led ZeppelinвЂ™s Houses of the Holy. ( In an interview with Ed Lopez-Reyes of Floyd news site Brain Damage, I likened Pink Floyd to magicians who donвЂ™t explain their tricks.) ItвЂ™s no wonder that the album turned Pink Floyd into major stars, sold 50 million copies and remained on the Billboard charts 741 weeks. None of the band members offered an explanation, leaving it up to fans to add their own meanings, a process that required repeated album listens and discussion with other fans.

In context of intense songs like вЂњTimeвЂќ and вЂњUs and Them,вЂќ what did the album cover mean, exactly? The mystery deepened when you studied the poster and stickers of pyramid shapes found inside the album sleeve. The mystery began after you heard the mind-blowing music on the album coupled with bassist Roger WatersвЂ™s deeply personal lyrics exploring themes of alienation, loss, and materialism. The cover, depicting white light passing through a prism to form the bright colors of the spectrum against a stunning black field, invited listeners to explore the music inside - and still does today. At the time, Pink Floyd was on the cusp of becoming a mainstream success with a growing fan base. The Dark Side of the Moon cover art created intrigue when the album landed in record stores in March 1973.

For its ability to create mystery and intrigue for four decades, The Dark Side of the Moon joins my hall of fame of memorable album covers. The Dark Side of the Moon is not only one of the greatest albums ever made, its cover became an visual icon for Pink Floyd itself - a quiet, mysterious team of four musicians who let their music and visual stories speak for them. Nowhere is the power of Pink FloydвЂ™s visual appeal more apparent than the cover for the album The Dark Side of the Moon, released 40 years ago in March. Pink Floyd would have been a perfect match for the visually oriented era of Pinterest and Tumblr had the band emerged today.ДЄt the height of Pink FloydвЂ™s popularity in the 1970s, the FloydвЂ™s visually arresting album covers and iconography complemented the artistry of the its music and generated buzz that would make the Word of Mouth Marketing Association proud.

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