Joe Zeff Design was part of Adobe’s Digital Publishing Event in New York City this morning, where the software company announced several enhancements to its Digital Publishing Suite intended to make tablet publications more robust than ever.

The June issue of Fast Company, which became available for sale yesterday in the iTunes App Store, is the first DPS publication to use Adobe Edge, a new HTML authoring tool that has not yet been released to the public. Joe Zeff shared the stage with Fast Company Executive Editor Noah Robischon and Adobe fellow Mark Anders to demonstrate Edge and how it integrates with Digital Publishing Suite.

We see Edge as a way to make passive content more active than ever, going beyond the existing DPS toolset. Other benefits: sharper type, smaller filesizes and greater extensibility of HTML content beyond the tablet. The Edge animation we designed for Fast Company was repurposed for the magazine’s website in less than five minutes. We look forward to using Edge and other DPS enhancements to benefit our publishing clients, which include Fast Company, PC Magazine, Everyday Health and UCLA Anderson School of Management.

A live blog of today’s event appears here. Among the other highlights:

• Adobe DPS now contains iPhone compatibility, adding yet another output format for digital publications. It will be interesting to see how quickly publishers leverage the ability to create mobile apps.

• Social sharing has been expanded to include e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, with links to DPS content presented in a browser with the same functionality as what appears on the tablet. Consumers can view a predetermined number of free articles before confronting a paywall and an invitation to purchase an issue or subscription.

• Adobe has made its font library open to DPS customers, making it possible to embed fonts within PDF-based folios without running afoul of licensing requirements.

And in other Joe Zeff Design news:

• Joe Zeff Design won two Gold Awards at the Society of Publication Designers annual competition last week at Cipriani Wall Street for its design and development of Time magazine’s “Beyond 9/11″ app.

• Joe Zeff will be presenting the keynote speech at a Society of Publication Designers event Thursday night at Smashbox in Los Angeles. Details here. Then on Monday, Joe will appear at the City and Regional Magazines Association annual conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Details here.

Joe Zeff Design is now up and running in our new location, an 86-year-old church in Montclair, NJ, rebuilt from the inside out to accommodate our studio and 12 other companies. The former First Church of Christ, Scientist, has been reborn as Hillside Square, an eclectic mix of classic architecture and eco-friendly technology located about a half-hour from New York City.

There’s a charging station for electric cars, places to plug in iPads and iPhones, and plenty of outlets for creativity. We’ve blended the traditional details of the original church with state-of-the-art computer networks and teleconferencing gear to create a one-of-a-kind environment for producing next-generation iPad apps. Exposed trusses, a 16-foot-tall wooden archway, reupholstered pews and a lectern are all repurposed from the original church.

Herewith, a video tour, accompanied by Kanye West:

. . . and some snapshots:

On the other side of our archway is Fanbrandz, a division of Frederick and Froberg that has created brand identities for Major League Baseball and National Hockey League franchises. We look forward to collaborating with their team on sports-related apps and illustrations for years to come. The office is one block from Montclair’s central business district, with easy access to some of the best restaurants in New Jersey.

Many thanks to the masterminds behind Hillside Square: developers Bob Silver and Jay Schweppe; Jack Finn & Company with a special thanks to Jack himself and Tom Minden; Sionas Architecture, PC and in particular Rick Jarzembowski; interior designer Rachael H. Grochowski of RHG A+D; Berman Home Systems; the Township of Montclair; the congregation of First Church of Christ, Scientist (which still occupies a smaller part of the building); and the hundreds of workers who made it all possible.

Invitations to come regarding our grand opening party. Meanwhile, we’re open for business for app design, production and consulting; magazine covers; illustrations and animations and more. Same as before, 973-655-0501 and studio@joezeffdesign.com. Looking forward to seeing you at the church!

Joe Zeff Design has two new apps in the iTunes App Store today — issues of Fast Company and PC Magazine that truly showcase the potential of digital publishing.

Fast Company’s cover story features “The Lost Steve Jobs Tapes,” with more than 40 minutes of exclusive audio from journalist Brent Schlender’s recorded interviews with the late Apple founder. The iPad edition surpasses print in many ways, starting with the two-page cover that includes an index of articles, a play button that lets you hear Jobs’ voice before opening the magazine, and an animated portrait of Jobs by digital fingerpainter Jorge Colombo. Inside the issue are five more Colombo portraits depicting Jobs at different stages of his career, a half-hour podcast and a bonus reprint of a past Jobs feature — all baked into the app; no Internet required. The issue is Retina-optimized for new iPads and available here.

The May issue of PC Magazine also hit the App Store today, with a cover story downloadable software that’s absolutely free. The cover itself springs to life with a rich animation designed by Phil Bratter and animated by Christopher Holewski and Ed Gabel that you won’t want to miss. The entire issue is interactive, with literally hundreds of buttons unlocking layers of content. The columnists’ perspectives are presented as a mix of curated text and real-time Twitter feeds. Like Fast Company, PC Magazine is Retina-optimized for third-generation iPads, including their free sample issue. Unlike Fast Company, PC Magazine exists only as a digital brand, which affords more freedom to create an experience specifically targeted for tablets. PC Magazine is available here.

Both magazines are produced monthly by Joe Zeff Design using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, combining the simplicity of Adobe’s platform with tablet-focused design and HTML enhancements. Shoutouts to Florian and Noah at Fast Company, Kathleen and Stephanie at PC Magazine, and the rest of the JZD team — specifically, Josh Penrod and Krissi Xenakis — for their contributions to these outstanding issues.

In other news:

• We’ve added UCLA Anderson School of Management as a client, and will work with the university and its design studio, Chess Design, to relaunch its alumni magazine on the tablet. We’re excited about the opportunity to work with UCLA and other universities to leverage the iPad and other technology as a way to engage with alumni, students and colleagues throughout the world.

• President Joe Zeff will be speaking on “iPad Publishing Strategies” at the City and Regional Magazine Association 2012 Annual Conference May 21 in Las Vegas — hi ho! Download more information here. Also, Joe will moderate a panel discussion at a Magazine Publishers of America conference June 21 in New York City. Details here.

• We’re moving to new offices April 27, relocating to a converted church two blocks away from our current space. What better place to find creative inspiration! We’re very excited about our next-door neighbor inside the church, the Fanbrandz division of Frederick & Froberg. Stay tuned for updates and an invitation to our grand opening.

• Congratulations to Dr. Mario Garcia on his upcoming e-book, “iPad Design Lab: Storyteling in the Age of the Tablet.” We designed the cover of Mario’s new digital book and provided interviews and insights throughout the process. Beyond his legacy as a publication designer and his influence as a consultant with hundreds of clients worldwide, we value Mario as a dear friend and wish him the very best with his must-read tome on tablets.

Have a great weekend enjoying Fast Company and PC Magazine on your iPads!

We’re excited to be part of the WoodWing Xperience this week in Amsterdam, where hundreds of publishing executives from throughout the world have gathered to learn about digital publishing from experts at Adobe, WoodWing and other companies.

Joe Zeff Design is well-represented at the conference, with three people attending workshops and presentations. President Joe Zeff delivered a keynote address during the morning session about ways to apply lessons learned from digital magazine publishing to other fields, in particular the education and retail markets.

Time Inc. Chief Information Officer Mitch Klaif spoke about his company’s ambitious efforts to digitize all of its properties, singling out the Time magazine “Beyond 9/11″ app that was designed by Joe Zeff Design. (Thanks Mitch!) And Betty Wong, editor in chief of Fitness magazine, talked about her magazine’s transition to tablets and what her company, Meredith, has learned along the way.

WoodWing made news by announcing a new product called SmartDPS Tools, a set of enhancements to Adobe Digital Publishing Suite that make the software more capable and easier to use. The package, to be released later this year at a pricepoint to be determined, provides InDesign plugins that simplify the process of deploying hotspots and scrollable elements; an HTML5 widget library; and a streamlined way to turn PDFs into Adobe DPS folios.

The conference continues tomorrow with presentations from Zeke Koch, who oversees Adobe’s DPS efforts, and others. Stay tuned for more updates.

The April issue of Fast Company turned up in the Apple Newsstand today, featuring a cover story on Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and some of the newest features of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.

Fast Company is one of the first magazines to offer Retina optimization, with sharper type and images when viewed on the new iPad. Those who previously downloaded Fast Company will need to download Version 1.1 from the App Store in order to see the enhancements to the April issue. The high-definition version is rasterized at four times the resolution of the version available for the iPad 1 and 2.

The app also leverages a new “Favorites” feature, enabling users to bookmark any article by tapping on a star icon in the upper right corner of the navigation interface. To highlight an article, tap once on the screen to access the interface and tap on the star icon in the upper right corner. A list of favorites will appear, spanning every issue that the user has downloaded, permitting easy access to all favorites in all issues regardless of which issue the user is currently reading.

The April issue is Fast Company’s second, both produced by Joe Zeff Design. The first was an iTunes Store App of the Week in several countries, as well as an Adobe App of the Week. This latest issue enhances the print experience by adding multimedia features and animations, as well as a bonus reprint of Fast Company’s May 2007 cover story on Zuckerberg, yet weighs in at less than 90 megabytes. As with the first issue, many advertisements are pinch-to-zoomable to view small type, and the app is fully compliant with Audit Bureau of Circulation rules.

See for yourself — and be sure to download the update.