Adjunct instructors teach a significant number of the college courses offered across the country. Many adjuncts have no prior teaching experience, but bring valuable professional and practical knowledge to students, particularly those enrolled in pre-professional degree programs. The studio course format presents unique challenges to new instructors, too. This qualitative study focused the experience of adjunct instructors at the onset of teaching design studio courses. Twelve design professionals at different institutions were interviewed about how they prepared to teach, the training and support provided by the institution, and their perceptions of that support. The data seems to indicate that dissonance pervades the adjunct instructors' experience of teaching design studio courses. They approach their teaching job as they do a design job, and experience dissonance when that does not work. They are motivated to be effective teachers, and have an overarching purpose for teaching that is connected to their experience as students and design professionals. Focused and timely teaching support is inconsistent and rare, but highly valued. When teaching support was missing, participants relied on their memory of being a design student to inform their teaching practice. Design professionals seem to prefer having mentors and a community of practice within their area of instruction for teaching support. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]