An Olympic-size Reflection

oceaniaeuropeamericasafricaasia from gustavo sousa on Vimeo.

For the past sixteen days, the world's five inhabited continents united, to compete and celebrate the athletic achievements of the global community in the Pangaea-like super celebration known as the Olympic Games. London 2012 is over and on August 29, the Paralmypics will begin. The conversations surrounding the long-term sustainability and impact of the games will materialize more fully.

In Oceaniaeuropeamericasafricaasia, graphic designer Gustavo Sousa, uses the iconic olympic rings graphic to visually interpret worldwide data, on statistics such as, obesity, gun ownership, McDonald's outlets, population, homicides, people living with HIV, etc., where each ring represents a continent.

What's most interesting, is that no continent is assigned a specific color, forcing the viewer to give an educated guess to which ring represents which continent. The varying ring sizes and anonymity in each graph and the use of the iconic Olympic logo, underscores some serious inequalities that we share in the face of unity.

In an interview with FastCompany, Sousa says: "The rings represent healthy competition and union, but we know the world isn’t perfect. Maybe understanding the differences is the first step to try to make things more equal."