This post is planned to help you create great vectors and get the most out of the tools you have in Expression Design.
Here is 2 simple shapes I am going to use for the examples, with a blue gradient, corner radius of 20px and a stroke thickness of 5px
Compound Paths
Compound paths take the existing paths and find the overlapping sections and remove them (the paths are un-altered but the shape is merged).
How to: Select both shapes and go to Object > Compound Path (or just hit ctrl+8)
Clipping Paths
Clipping paths remove anything that is outside the selected “clipping path”.
I have turned the top shape into a clipping path (by top shape, I am refering to the layers, not the location), so it deletes any part of the bottom shape that is outside its path, when you create a clipping path you are given the option on which path you wish to use as the clipping path.
How to: Select both shapes and go to Objects > Clipping path and select if you want to top or bottom shape to be the clipping path, you can also release a clipping path from here.
Intersect
Intersect is very cool, all it does is find the overlapping sections of the 2 objects and keeps it, then deletes the rest
How to: select the 2 objects, go to Objects > Path Operations > Intersect
Divide
This takes each section of the paths and “divides” them into parts.
This is cool if you wanted to explode the object.
How to: Select the 2 objects, Object > Path Operations > Divide (to detach each section just select each part and move as if they were separate objects)
Unite
Unite simply makes the 2 objects one. Removing any overlapping sections.
How to: Select the 2 objects, Object > Path Operations > Unite
There are 2 other options in the Path Operations menu which are:
Front minus back and Back minus front
These items simply remove one object from the other.
How to: Select the 2 objects, Object > Path Operations > Front Minus Back (or Back Minus Front)
And last but not least… the Envelope distort tool…
This doesn’t need 2 objects to be done, but it will work with multiple objects selected…
This will create a grid over your object, and using the Direct Select tool 
you can manipulate each point in the grid for some really cool effects!
How to: Select you object/s and goto Object > Envelope Distort, then use the direct selection tool to manipulate each point.
Hopefully with these tricks you will be able to get the most out of Expression Design and create some really interesting stuff.
Thanks
About the Author
Alex Knight
Alex is a Graphic Designer who can't get enough of Silverlight. He spends his days designing websites and application UI/UX for AGKDesign and Objectify, as well as maintaining SilverZine.com and his own blog. If you would like to catch up with him, here are some links that might help:AGKDesign.twitter | AGKDesign.blog | AGKDesign.net | AGKDesign.silverlight
