Paul Evans, who has a high profile in the market right now, created mixed-metal pieces in bronze, silver and gold, all made by hand and almost all signed and dated. In 1964, he became the designer for Directional Furniture company, a forward-thinking manufacturer established in 1950 whose designers at various times included Paul McCobb, Vladimir Kagan and other major Modernists. Evans created three Directional series. "The Argente line of painted and sculpted aluminum is more art than furniture, and remains his rarest line," says New York dealer Todd Merrill. "The Cityscape line combines patchwork brass with chrome and wood, while the Sculpted Bronze series combines hand-sculpted resin over a wood carcass, which is then sprayed with atomized bronze." Evans’s flashy sculpted-front console with sunbursts, stalagmites, enameled and acid finishes and gold leaf now brings hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Merrill co-authored The New Americana: High Craft, High Glam Furniture and Design 1940 to 1990, soon to be published by Rizzoli.)

By and large, these "hot" designers were a colorful lot. They demanded hands-on quality control over a tightly supervised production process and lavished great attention on the details. Mostly they produced custom, one-off pieces or, at most, very limited editions. Many signed and dated their work.

The second cluster, the "warm," includes the studio design movement: the men who came from an art or crafts background, communed with wood and valued the sensuous, tactile appeal of objects fashioned by hand. Often working alone in studio shops, many of these designers produced one unique piece at a time, the results often dictated by the characteristics of the materials at hand. The woodworking designer-craftsmen shared a value system but spoke with uniquely individual voices, producing furniture that varied widely in style, sophistication and complexity. The so-called first generation of postwar studio furniture makers includes Sam Maloof who, working from his California shop, produced more than 5,000 pieces in a career spanning more than 60 years, most notably rocking chairs distinguished by their attenuated curves and beautifully figured, hand-rubbed finishes. Valuing comfort and utility, the self-taught, self-effacing Maloof preferred the understated term "woodworker" to "craftsman."
 
Wharton Esherick came to preeminence in furniture design after a not-very-successful career as an artist and sculptor. Working in his rustic Paoli, Pennsylvania, studio, Esherick made uniquely sculptural organic pieces, letting the form follow the frequently quirky properties of the material. The wide-ranging results were less predictable than Maloof’s. In later years, to meet demand, Esherick mechanized his shop and hired helping hands in the belief that design trumped handcraft. Wendell Castle, whose wood and fiberglass creations press at the boundaries of furniture design, is as much sculptor as designer. Sometimes called the father of the art furniture movement, he is still working in Scottsville, New York. Castle’s work, sometimes biomorphic, sometimes angular, is in many museum collections.

In recent years, works by George Nakashima have soared in value. Architecturally trained and well-traveled, the Japanese-American designer was interned during World War II but put the time to practical use, developing traditional Japanese woodworking skills. After his release in 1943, he moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania, where he spent much of his life working with his hands to create simple but striking furniture. Nakashima venerated the natural forms and beautiful figuring of various woods, sentiments he articulated in his 1988 book, The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker’s Reflections. Nakashima is perhaps best known for his easily recognized, simple but highly irregular free-form wood slab tables. Sotheby’s sold one in 2006 for a record $822,400.

James Zemaitis, head of Sotheby’s 20th-Century Decorative Arts and Design department, says, "I firmly believe that the New Hope master is the king of the postwar design auction market. His work is avidly collected by a far wider worldwide audience—from Seoul to London to L.A.—than most others, and he enjoys unprecedented crossover appeal between the traditional auction markets. Everyone from West Coast japonists to crusty Americana flag-wavers wants a slice of Nakashima fissured walnut for their interiors."