"Rainbow" In Modern Visual Culture

In addition to its natural meaning, rainbow has many social and cultural meanings. It is regarded as the symbol of the gay community, because of the rainbow flag. Since then, the rainbow has become a kind of color which makes people feel sensitive and cautious, especially the rainbow with six colors. Through the analysis of the rainbow in modern visual culture, I find that most of the fashionable rainbow patterns are composed of six colors. Some of them are related to homosexuality. However, the emergence of this universality shows the powerful cultural influence. After analyzing the "rainbow" elements in the Chinese modern popular culture and mass culture, I find that the "rainbow" in the visual design is closely related to the elements matched with rainbow. When it matches with special elements, it will grow relevant meanings. It also illustrates the significance of culture in the visual design. If the culture is more energetic, it can make the visual design produce more significances. For example, rainbow flag causes thousands of LOGO designs and product designs.However, from another aspect it also illustrates that if a visual image can not take root in a culture, it will become a meaningless symbol. This visual intervention can produce some new effects with its own culture. Just as the simple "rainbow" elements, it can be applied to every aspects of life, such as clothing, products, snacks and articles for daily use. Even it gives out its own meaning.