Pink Floyd – The Wall

Digipak Analysis

Front CoverThe album cover features the band’s name and the name of the album in red writing which is made to look like graffiti on the white brick wall background which runs throughout the Digipak. This aesthetic choice of a graffiti look was chosen because it reflects on the band’s youthful and rebellion image at the time of the album release in 1979; Pink Floyd were very different to a lot of popular music at the time and in general they became popular with younger people who fitted outside the mainstream and the cover art reflects this.

The brick wall which is used on the front, back and inside of the Digipak, this design was chosen in relation to the album title of “The Wall” and the fact that throughout the recording and narrative of the album the band felt an imaginary wall between themselves and the audience. I believe that the design of the front cover was kept relatively simple in order for the band and album names to be easily distinguishable as they are the truly important pieces of information on the cover.

There is a recurring background of a brick wall which is patterned across every section of the Digipak, this is done to give the impression that the wall itself is physical and gigantic. In addition to this it is a visual representation of the vast, progressive album itself which has a very long running time of 80:54 including 28 songs. Although the album sold massively well and Pink Floyd were superstars, it became influential for many indie rock bands in the years that followed and the minimalistic DIY cover of this album is certainly reflected as a genre convention by many other artists.

Inside section

The middle section for this Digipak houses 2 CDs and a small booklet which includes information on the lyrics and production of the album and yet again there is a minimalistic design running throughout. The brick wall background covers the whole middle section in one pattern, with the design running smoothly over each panel giving the effect of the wall being a constant, large mass. This is again reflective of the music of Pink Floyd which is very complex and layered and could be described as a “wall of sound”. Not only is the background layer repetitive but also there is a similar art style and theme for all three of the panels on the inside of the Digipak, with cartoonish monsters being drawn in pastel colours. These images are clearly hand drawn and although they are interesting and well executed they are done so in an imperfect, abstract and slightly psychedelic way. This once again reflects the music of Pink Floyd which is imaginative, progressive and abstract. Throughout all of the album artwork the band do a thorough job of ensuring that the music and visuals go hand in hand and clearly belong to the same project. In terms of genre conventions these inside panels certainly adhere to and were influential in the common theme of psychedelic indie rock being visually colourful, vibrant and abstract.

Back Cover