NEW YORK—At this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York (May 17–20) — a sober offering of signature furnishings, reliably modern ensembles, and the usual odd trinket — ARTINFO searched out new talent with an eye for design and its fundamental principles of attraction. We selected four of these designers to discuss their showcase creations, as well as to choose another object at the fair and explain its attraction, bringing you a crash course on the moment’s designer intelligence.

To see the eight-work course on designer intelligence, click on the photo gallery to the left.