Since Dr. Zoidberg’s expression has clearly articulated my reaction, I’ll simply move on to the good news. Yes, it’s here. Already. CS6. Too soon. Definitely? Sorry to see it? Definitely not. It’s awesome. Not in the “They’re bringing back Firefly!” realm, but still pretty awesome as an app set. I know the world is sold on Photoshop as the center of the universe, and that may be true. But I tend to spend more time in the other apps of the set. In this post, I’ll be specifically praising my good friend Dreamweaver.

Not to bore you with the stuff that hasn’t changed, I’ll jump straight to the new stuff.

New site manager

The Manage Sites dialog box (Sites > Manage Sites) has a new look and feel, although much of the functionality remains the same. Additional functionality includes the ability to create or import Business Catalyst sites.

Fluid grid-based CSS layouts

Use the robust new fluid grid layouts in Dreamweaver (New > New Fluid Grid Layout) to create adaptive CSS layouts that respond to varying screen sizes. When you build a web page using a fluid grid, the layout and its contents automatically adjust to the user’s viewing device, whether desktop computer, tablet, or smart phone.

CSS3 transitions

Use the new CSS Transitions panel to apply smooth property changes to CSS-based page elements that respond to trigger events such as hovering, clicking, and focusing. (A common example is a menu bar item that gradually fades from one color to another when you hover over it.) You can now create CSS transitions using both code-level support, and the new CSS Transitions panel (Window > CSS Transitions).

Multiple CSS class selection

You can now apply multiple CSS classes to a single element. Select the element, open the Multiclass Selection dialog box, and choose your classes. After you apply multiple classes, Dreamweaver creates a new multiclass from your selections. The new multiclass then becomes available from other places where you make CSS selections.

You can open the Multiclass Selection dialog box from several access points:

• The HTML property inspector (Choose Apply Multiple Classes from the menu.)
• The Targeted Rule pop-up menu of the CSS property inspector
• The context menu of the tag selector at the bottom of the Document window (right-click a tag and choose Set Class > Apply Multiple Classes.)

PhoneGap Build integration

Through direct integration with the exciting new PhoneGap Build service, Dreamweaver CS6 customers can build native applications for mobile devices using their existing HTML, CSS and JavaScript skills. After you log into PhoneGap Build via the PhoneGap Build panel (Site > PhoneGap Build), you can build your web application directly on the PhoneGap Build service, and download the resulting native mobile applications to either your local desktop or mobile device. The PhoneGap Build service manages your project and allows you to build native applications for the most popular mobile platforms, including Android, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian and webOS.

NOTE TO CS5.5 USERS: The way that Dreamweaver CS6 supports building native apps for iOS, Android, and other mobile operating systems using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the PhoneGap framework has changed completely. It no longer installs the Android software development kit (SDK) and emulator. Nor can the Mac version hook directly into Xcode and the iOS simulator. Instead, there’s a new panel that uploads your files to PhoneGap Build, an online service that automatically packages applications for iOS, Android, webOS, Symbian, and BlackBerry. Using PhoneGap Build is much easier than working with a simulator, because the Dreamweaver panel displays a QR code that lets you load the app directly onto your testing device. However, you need to build the configuration file manually in XML, and there’s no longer any code hinting in Dreamweaver for PhoneGap plugins. So, although the integration of PhoneGap Build is a definite improvement, it feels as though the engineering team didn’t have time to polish some important details.

You can now build an app for iOS on either Mac or Windows, but in order to compile it, you need to create a valid signing key and upload it to PhoneGap Build. The signing key must be created on a Mac. You also need to register with Apple as an iOS developer and pay an annual fee.

jQuery Mobile 1.0 and jQuery Mobile swatches

 jQuery Mobile 1.0

Dreamweaver CS6 ships with jQuery 1.6.4, as well as jQuery Mobile 1.0 files. Starter jQuery Mobile pages are available from the New Document dialog box (File > New > Page From Sample > Mobile Starters). You can also now choose between two kinds of CSS files when creating your jQuery mobile pages: full CSS files, or CSS files that are split into structural and theme components.

 jQuery Mobile swatches

Preview all the swatches (themes) in a jQuery mobile CSS file by using the new jQuery Mobile Swatches panel (Window > jQuery Mobile Swatches). Then use the panel to apply swatches to or remove them from various elements in your jQuery mobile web page. Use this feature to individually apply swatches to headers, lists, buttons and other elements.

Business Catalyst integration

 New Business Catalyst sites

You can now create a new Business Catalyst trial site directly from Dreamweaver, and explore the broad capabilities that Business Catalyst can provide to your clients and projects.

Business Catalyst panel

After you log in to your Business Catalyst Site, you can insert and customize Business Catalyst modules directly from the Business Catalyst panel (Window > Business Catalyst) in Dreamweaver.You’ll have access to rich functionality such as product catalogs, blogs and social media integration, shopping carts and more. The integration provides a way for you to eamlessly work between your local files in Dreamweaver and your site’s database content on the Business Catalyst site.

Web fonts

You can now use creative web-supported fonts (such as Google or Typekit web fonts) in Dreamweaver. First, use the Web Font Manager (Modify > Web Fonts) to import a web font into your Dreamweaver site. The web font then becomes available for use in your web pages.

Simplified PSD optimization

The Dreamweaver CS5 Image Preview dialog box is now called the Image Optimization dialog box. To open the dialog box, select an image in the Document window and click the Edit Image Settings button in the Property inspector. Some of the options found in the previous CS5 Image Preview dialog box now appear in the Properties Inspector.

An instant preview of the image is displayed in Design view as you change settings in the Image Optimization dialog box.

Young & Rubicam Sao Paulo cleverly communicates the LG Home Theater’s 3D sound idea by showing you the ‘other side’ of well-known movie posters. Posters for films including ‘Kill Bill,’ ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Forrest Gump’ are shown from the back, with the titles inverted. Very cool way of showcasing the potential of dimensional television. This ad series works as long as the movies are well known with visually memorable imagery.

Ad Copy:

Home theater 3D sound LG.
Every side of the sound.

Full Credits

Advertising Agency: Y&R Sao Paulo, Brazil

Chief Creative Officer: Rui Branquinho

Creative Directors: Rui Branquinho, Flavio Casarotti, Victor Santanna, Jorge Iervolino

Art Director: Guilherme Rácz

Copywriter: Lucas Casão

Photographer: Lúcio Cunha

Art Buyer: Monica Beretta

Print Agency Producers: Elaine Carvalho, Flavio Zamboni

Account Managers: Valeria Ordonhez, Sandra Borges, Julia Altenhofen

Planner: Fernanda Flandoli, João Gabriel, Rafael Rossi

Media team: Gustavo Gaion, Gabriela Ben David

Client approval: Pablo Vidal

To learn more about the Young & Rubicam agency and their work, click HERE.

Here’s a great analogy from SmashingMag running comic, The FLEATY: The Geek Bug.

The cartoons are dedicated to design and Web development, but also have a comic twist about everything happening around the Web as well as give you some insights behind the curtains of Smashing Magazine.

This cartoon is referring to the article The Insidious Evils of ‘Like’ Culture in which the “Like” culture in our society is criticized. The article discusses how in our age of online view counts and retweets, conformity is unfortunately becoming the rule.

Smashing Cartoons is a regular section on Smashing Magazine. Every Friday we publish a new cartoon created by Ricardo Gimenes, the creative mind of Behind the Websites.

Lecture support video for my MDC Package Design Class. This video was created to inspire my students on the method of approach to a packaging series where common elements must be implemented to maintain continuity.

Strokes are core to drawing in Illustrator, and for Illustrator CS6, the ability to apply gradients on strokes will let designers transform simple paths into visually complex and compelling shapes. And the beauty of this approach, beyond the imaginative artwork, is that the shape that’s created is an easily edited stroke – not a typical shape that’s defined by many points.

In Illustrator CS6, gradients on strokes can be applied along the length, across the width, or within a stroke, but the real magic happens when these new gradients are combined with the variable width stroke feature introduced in CS5.

Join Illustrator product manager Brenda Sutherland as she shares this exciting new creative tool coming in Illustrator CS6.

A couple of new ads for the iPhone 4S surfaced recently. Featuring none other than the one and only Samuel L. Jackson, the first 30-second spot highlights Siri, the new iPhone’s loving digital assistant. The second ad stars the lovely Zooey Deschanel. Both ads seem to be in rotation for all three U.S. iPhone carrier partners — AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

Apple appears to be spearheading a new ad campaign featuring high profile celebrities and the iPhone 4S, but so far those two ads are the only ones that have been spotted. Here’s the Jackson video below. I’m still waiting for the official YouTube channels, so pardon the video quality.

Hmm… According to Siri, they appears they DO speak English in WHAT.

This is Part One of a 3-part video series in d’Joint.  It teachers you how to use the simple tools of Illustrator to create an elaborate label for a fictional vodka company.

Want More? Go PREMIUM!

Worth a look folks. The artwork of the 1982 film “Blade Runner”. This has done the rounds a few times, but the Blade Runner sketchbook contains some stunning concept work by Syd Mead, Ridley Scott, and others who worked on the film. Enjoy.

Tip of the hat to fellow blogger Tom Muller.

More madness from my one of my fave fan artists: Dean T. Fraser. This time, Dean has done a cool mash-up mixing the Batman: The Animated Series universe with Star Wars. These images are priceless. It’s pretty obvious to geeks like me, but if you’re feeling a bit challenged, go get your little brother to help. He won’t mind.

Kurry Pro has been one of the surprise sellers at MyFonts.com of the past couple of months. Among the many no-nonsense sans-serif fonts that have come out recently, it stands out as a rather exotic hybrid. Its basic structure is simple — a narrow rectangular skeleton rounded at the top and the bottom — but its somewhat quirky details set it apart. Terminals end in a softened point, as do some strokes where curves join straight stems; many letters have a swashed alternate version, and special English-language keywords such as “with”, “of” and “by” (the latter two in upper- and lowercase) add to the font family’s versatility.

About the Font’s Design Firm

Cadson Demak is an image planning firm with typographic service based in Bangkok Thailand founded in 2002.

Introduced in in 2006, “Cadson Demak Distribution” a group of custom Thai type designers working together hand in hand to set up a common ground for digital type design business in Thailand. Cadson Demak Distribution gradually becomes typographic supplier for most of Thailand’s leading brands such as Tesco Lotus, Wallpaper magazine (Thai Edition), Men’s Heath (Thai Edition), ThaiBev, Chang Beer, AIS, Communication Authority of Thailand and Dtac (Telenor Thailand).

If you like this typeface from Cadson Demak, check out some of their other fonts:

 Kondolar

It’s easy to let Kondolar’s occasional swooping descender trip you up, but that shouldn’t distract from what is essentially an uncomplicated, multi-purpose text-and-display slab serif. The option of flourishes on K, Q and R adds a dash of adventure to the workmanlike slabs.

Due

Launched in December 2011, Due is Cadson Demak’s latest take on the genre of the humanized businesslike sans-serif. Its open shapes, agreeable curves and clear, rather wide italics make it a good choice for display and basic text settings in corporate as well as editorial design projects.

Knight Sans

With a rounder overall character than some of Cadson Demak’s other sans faces, Knight Sans would be a good candidate for corporate publications, special print projects and websites. It holds up well as a varied text face possessed of enough character and individuality to escape bland conformity.