I've seen the mock-ups for v6, and I've seen the beta website, and although there are some great ideas being implemented, the design leaves me deeply disappointed. It looks like we've gone backwards in time, to something like v3 (see the archives: [link]). The page is too densely packed in some places, while in others there is too much blank space. The use of fills and borders and rounded edges makes things needlessly complex. The form controls for the search box look like they come from an old Mac OS, tinted green.

I had actually started working on some designs since before the screenshots, so I thought I might as well show it rather than stay silent. It combines my own ideas with the things I've already seen so I don't take credit for every single detail in the design. To avoid pasting labels across the entire image, I'll describe the interface below.

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Theme
The design stays reasonably close to v5 in terms of shape and colour - I much prefer the grey-green over the strong green chosen for the main header of the proposed v6. Still, I have made the green of the main header here slightly stronger.
One thing I always found odd about v5 was the way the content funnels in from the top, leaving large unused margins at the sides, so I changed that.
For the main body, I've chosen a background color somewhere between the dAv5 dark pages and the dAv5 light pages - hopefully a good compromise between traditional dark colours, and hurting people's eyes on deviation pages with white backdrops.

Header
As proposed by the v6 concepts, and already done in the Chatrooms, the deviant bar is at the very top, which is beneficial in several ways. This is an example of what logged out users see. To see what it looks like when logged in, see the second concept.
The logo, navigation and search looked rather out of place, floating around in sea of green in the proposed v6 beta. I'd rather see them in a common container, and it's here where I show off the stronger tint of the color scheme with an attractive smooth gradient.
The icons, from left to right, are Browse, Shop, Collections, News, TodAy, Chat, Forum and Help & FAQ. The final button is the customize button, which acts like this: [link] This may only appear to logged-in users. When you hover over an icon, the associated text will appear in the space above it to explain what it is. Having just icons looks better and also allows you to have more links on your header row.
The search box in the v6 beta really annoyed me with its ugliness. This one looks much the same as v5, but smoothed out like the rest of the design, and including the drop-down box which will allow context-insensitive searches. Advanced search? I'll show you that concept on another screenshot.

Front Page Content
Imagine a new user coming to dA for the first time. All they see is a bunch of pictures and a big Join button on the right. That hardly helps explain dA's purpose. Here, the company's motto and tagline appear at the very top, along with the mascot.
On the left, the thumbnail streams appear as usual, but they can also be expanded/contracted if desired. The Browse button provides extra help for those wishing to see more art. This is replaced by the Customize button when you're logged in.
On the right, we have news articles! Under that is the Join section, much the same as before. Below that is the Newsletter subscription box, which currently only shows up on Shop pages. Also included here is a link allowing users to go to the About Us page to find out yet more about dA (hopefully the v6 About pages will show more than just a list of the administrators).

Footer
It is proposed that thumbnail streams and the entire contents of the Today page be included in the footer of v6 - [link] Come on now; that's rather bloated. Now, perhaps this information can appear on the Front Page, but for all other pages the footer should be consistent and minimal - if people really want to see polls and deviousness awards, they will go to the dedicated Today page. As done in the v6 beta, the footer links are nicely segregated on the bottom line. Where did the Partners list go? I don't know... I hope those partners don't get mad that it's gone.

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See the other concepts: Message Center, Advanced Search