The American Academy in Rome offers a unique circumstance that encourages overlap and promotes collaboration among a wide range of creative disciplines. Graphic design operates in similar fashion, requiring and benefiting from conversations, input, evaluation, and the participation of different voices and skill sets. I’m looking to extend my institutional work with architects, artists, curators, and writers by participating in an environment structured to cultivate these familiar friendships. My aim is to leverage the Italian phasela famiglia” and turn that into a platform for a design practice. This would have both a practical application—forming the basis of a studio practice—and serve as the meta- and content creation portion of the experience. The practical application would lead to a new model of working, while acting as a catalyst for an open-ended, visual output. This will be realized in the form of an atlas, proposal, script, dossier, manual, or other form of documentation.