Abstract The task of drawing subgraphs is often underestimated and they are simply emphasized using different colors or line styles. In this paper, we present an approach for drawing graphs within graphs that first produces a layout for the subgraphs thus increasing their locality. We introduce connection sets stressing relationships between several subgraphs. In a case study, we demonstrate how they can be used to visualize connections between many small network motifs. This paper is based on a submission to the Graph Drawing Contest 2003 "Drawing Graphs within Graphs" []. The intent of the contest was to encourage research concerned with layouts of subgraphs.