NJ, with an updated article on designing Flex skins using CS3 and Flex Builder 3. The article describes both how to style components using only Flex Builder 3 and how to skin components using a combination of the CS products (AI, FW, PS, or FL) in Flex Builder 3. Along with the article comes a set of plug-ins for the CS apps that makes component creation a breeze.

The workflows and tooling for component skinning and styling released with Flex Builder 3 are a huge step by Adobe towards streamlining the designer/developer workflow. In the world of Flex 4 and Thermo, expect even more streamlined, and simplified, component skinning workflows back and forth between the CS products and Flex. The end goal here is to make it easy for designers and developers to work together to realize next generation RIA experiences by helping them both use the tools they prefer in the way they want.