Economic and technological upheavals of the last few years have challenged traditional notions of the design office. The Great Recession has made overhead a liability and long-term contracts less accessible; social media and the proliferation of image blogs allow designers to gain sizable followings overnight; and the desire to create meaningful and self-directed work has encouraged designers to look beyond billable hours to other forms of recompense.

In addition to showing their work, the designers featured in Owner at Self will share the adaptive and innovative strategies they’ve developed that allow them to make the work they want to make. Some initiate their own projects while others form geographically dispersed partnerships; some seek out alternative funding sources while others adapt their professional lives to their personal ones; all are taking the entrepreneurial risk to build practices that new conditions require.