A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit Europe as part of the Microsoft REMIX Tour 2009. REMIX is basically the little brother (or sister) event of the Microsoft MIX event – …

On the last stop of the tour – Lisbon – I met a very interesting group of folks who call themselves Mix and Blend (check out their cool Silverlight site and their portfolio). Mix and Blend is the name of their design shop and they help software development companies with the creation of the user interface and user experience of software applications and websites using Expression Blend. “We do the Blend work for development companies who do not have designers in their teams,” said Sérgio Ferreira, CTO.

Talking to Mix and Blend put me in a Beach Boys mood. All the guys in this team were wearing a cool black t-shirt that said We Blend for You.

continue reading the full post here…

I know I know - I deserve a tomato (or two) in my face for not posting since Kawasaki’s talk in SxSW early this year. Man, blame Twitter! that little thing got me to feel I didn’t need to blog anymore as kind of satisfied my need to reach out to you guys and to be in connection but not anymore, no longer will Twitter be my darling - I’ll go back to blogging. Anyway, just so that you forgive me here are 20 top resources I send out to Microsofties and customers whenever they ask me: How do I get started with Blend? - In Microsoft I focus on the Design audience (Design audience meaning Developers, Designers, UX architects etc) who care about the design capabilities of Silverlight.

Here are what I consider the top 20 resources for you. Ping me if you notice I’ve missed something REALLY important but keep in mind this list is for the “Design” side of Silverlight only… which in my mind is basically Expression Blend.

To Get Started: 

1.       Go through the Starter Kits

2.       Go through the Full Course

3.       User Online Resources to get additional info and more tutorials

ONLINE RESOURCES

Download the Expression Blend Trial

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Blend_Overview.aspx

Get the Expression Blend for Free via the WebsiteSpark program!

http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark

Project Rosetta

http://visitmix.com/labs/rosetta

Silverlight Switch

http://www.silverlightswitch.com/

Nibbles Tutorials

http://www.nibblestutorials.net

Kirupa.com

http://www.kirupa.com/blend_silverlight

Expression Blend Team Blog

http://blogs.msdn.com/expression

Download Additional Behaviors – Community Gallery

http://is.gd/4NlY5

Dynamic Prototyping with SketchFlow in Expression Blend

http://www.dynamic-prototyping.com/sketchflow

Expression Community

http://expression.microsoft.com

Silverlight Community

http://www.silverlight.net

SilverZine

http://silverzine.com

Andy Beaulieu

http://www.andybeaulieu.com

Victor Gaudioso

http://victorgaudioso.wordpress.com/category/silverlight-video-tutorials

FULL COURSE

In this course you will learn all the basics to create Silverlight and Expression experiences. It is an end to end get started. It includes an almost 200 page mini book with exercises, reference material and explanations by American Graphics Institute instructors. It also includes a collection of assets that you will be using throughout the course. For more specialized training check out the Starter Kits below.

File 1 : Get Started with Silverlight - Full course > (100-200 level content)

http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/E/D/4ED9A068-7431-435A-8FD3-D7F6746998CF/Create_Silverlight_with_Expression_Blend_3_Course.zip

File 2: Service Pack 1 for the Get Started with Silverlight course – (you need this file in addition to the Full Course file)

http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/E/D/4ED9A068-7431-435A-8FD3-D7F6746998CF/Service_Pack01_Create_Silverlight_with_Expression_Blend_3_Course.zip

STARTER KITS

Silverlight

Introduction to Prototyping with Sketchflow in Expression Blend 3: Assets, Guide and Video Package

Discover Sketchflow, a new feature set in Expression Blend 3 that helps you define the concept for user experiences in early stages of the design process. From sketches to wireframes to protoypes of simple or high definition, Sketchflow provides you the right tools to communicate your ideas and gather feedback from others.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/4/9/A49AB02F-F035-402C-9B26-84860EEAF7DC/Prototyping_with_Sketchflow_StarterKit.zip

Creating a ColorSwatch Control in Expression Blend 3: Assets, Guide and Video Package

Victor Gaudioso and AGI Training take us on a tour to learn how to use a custom layout control like the Circular Panel to create fun and creative arrangements of objects in a List Box control. No longer Lists need to be linear and boring. You will learn how to customize this circular panel enabled Listbox to look like a Color Swatch control. This will help you reuse this control in your own projects easily.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/F/8/FF8B289E-7DC4-4FC5-BAB6-9464240923FA/Creating_a_ColorSwatch_with_ExpressionBlend3_StarterKit.zip

Venture into Gaming with Behaviors in Expression Blend 3: Assets, Guide and Video Package

Learn more about how to build a traditional “bricks” game using Expression Blend 3 Behaviors. Simply drag and drop Behaviors over objects in your artboard to easily add powerful and sophisticated functions like animation, physics, interactivity, data connection, effects and more. All without coding. The ever growing Behaviors Gallery at expression.microsoft.com is always avaialable for you to download new behaviors.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/1/C/11C8F2E2-711B-4581-A688-6B66DA4D1124/VentureIntoGaming_ExpressionBlend3_StarterKit.zip

Support for Silverlight in Expression Web 3: Assets, Guide, Video Package

Learn how to leverage the new and easy to use Silverlight support features in Expression Web 3. Using a template kindly provided by TemplateMonster.com, AGI Training will help you learn how to take your websites and publish them to an FTP location without having to leave Expression Web.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/B/9/8/B9874A4F-58F8-4D01-8E2F-E1DAC62ED4A3/SilverlightSupport_Web3_StarterKit.zip

For Integrators or UI Developers: Building a Product Website with Expression Blend 3: Assets and Guide

Christoph Schittko, Architect Evangelist for Microsoft has produced this amazing lab that will take you by the hand (metaphorically speaking J) and help you put together a Product website that leverages the new Perspective Transformation in Silverlight 3 to create a 3D based rotating Zune that you can customize choosing colours or tattoos.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/A/4/4A45D010-6152-4557-BAD9-62CC2040108F/BuildingZuneWebsite_ExpressionBlend3_StarterKit.zip

Expression Web

Discovering SuperPreview in Expression Web 3: Assets, Guide and Video Package

Learn more about SuperPreview, a new visual diagnostics tool in Expression Web 3. In this Starter Kit using a template kindly provided by TemplateMonster.com, you will be provided with detailed guidance on how to leverage SuperPreview to diagnose issues across multiple browser, all with full rendering fidelity and detailed control.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/3/4/F343C86B-FEE4-4448-8715-CA768BB305FE/ExpressionWeb3_SuperPreview_StarterKit.zip

Creating Standards Based Websites with Expression Web 3: Assets, Guide and Video Package

Learn how to produce beautiful and fully standards compliant websites with Expression Web 3 with this Starter Kit. Based on a template kindly provided by TemplateMonster.com, AGI Training gives us a tour on how to follow better practices to achieve W3C compliant HTML code.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/4/B/54B5B8F5-9B00-4D86-A185-7E315ED26A93/Standards_Based_Websites_with_Expression_Web3_StarterKit.zip