I designed this Olympic Rings print on leather about a month ago, getting all excited about the Olympic Games coming up. I loved watching these ever since I was a child.

The idea for creating an Olympic Rings pattern design fascinated me, as I could see so many possibilities to play with these rings and five basic colors. This beautiful painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol is just one of them:

I started by creating a ‘scrambled’ pattern. I wanted to take the rings out of their familiar 3-on-top 2-on-bottom structure.

Thinking of the athletes and all different kinds of sports, I also started playing around with some athletes’ silhouettes.

But these directions didn’t work for me, even as I tried combining the two patterns together:

I started thinking in a new direction. Being a successful athlete is about commitment, determination and practice. Athletes follow a very strict training program with a firm structure. With that in mind I went back to the original structure of the rings, giving it a new interpretation which created this graphic element.

By multiplying this one element I built the structure of my pattern:

Olympic Rings Pattern Printed on Leather

Have you ever been inspired by the Olympic Rings in any of your creations?
Would love to see it! Head over to our Facebook page and share a photo!