We Make Videos

Our videos may surprise you. They're short and simple. They use paper cut-outs. They cover subjects "in Plain English." But lurking under the simple surface are lessons that have been crafted with great care. Despite our fun and lighthearted style, we take explanation seriously.

At the Event

On The Web

Feeds Web Items

Common Craft
Jun 26
Web Site Explainer Tip: Make People Care The following post is a part of a series called "Explainer Tips" where we share lessons we've learned in crafting explanations. Looking b...
Common Craft
Jun 16
Web Site Video: Twitter Search in Plain English Today we released a new video called "Twitter Search in Plain English" The video uses an metaphor of the small town of "Twitterville." T...
Common Craft
Jun 16
Web Site Twitter Search in Plain English Twitter Search in Plain English Check out all the videos in our "Social Media Pack" pack: Blogs in Plain EnglishOnlin...
Common Craft
Jun 10
Web Site BarCamp Seattle is this Weekend! (June 13th & 14th) If you live in or near Seattle, try to make it BarCamp Seattle this weekend.  Common Craft is a sponsor - I'll see you there. What's BarC...
Common Craft
Jun 9
Web Site A Better Way to Learn Chemistry If I could have learned chemistry this way, I might have discovered a career in science. Via Daily Dish
Common Craft
Jun 2
Web Site Meet Us at NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) Sachi and I will be attending the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) later this month in Washington DC. This will be our f...
Common Craft
May 28
Web Site Common Craft in Newsweek There a nice little blurb about Common Craft by Nick Summers in the June 1 edition of Newsweek - it's the one with Iranian President Mahm...
Common Craft
May 26
Web Site New Video: Preparing an Emergency Kit in Plain English Today we published a new video called "Preparing an Emergency Kit in Plain English." This video represents a new kind of relationship fo...
Common Craft
May 26
Web Site Preparing an Emergency Kit in Plain English Preparing an Emergency Kit in Plain EnglishPreparing an Emergency Kit in Plain English
Common Craft
May 18
Web Site Introducing the New CommonCraft.com A few months back, we made re-thinking our web site a top priority. We needed a better way to organize, display and sell our videos. At ...
Common Craft
May 6
Web Site Editors in Brief: Common Craft Article in Seattle Magazine A few months ago, we spent an afternoon with Jamie Friddle, a writer for Seattle Magazine, who was putting together a story on Common Cra...
Common Craft
May 5
Web Site Chalkboard Animation: FireKites "Autumn Story" I really love the effect of shadow of the previous image that is left on the chalkboard. I wonder what would happen if we tried this on t...
Common Craft
Apr 23
Web Site The Story of Our First Video, 2 Years Ago Today It's true. Two years ago today, we posted our very first video, RSS in Plain English. We had no idea what we were doing, or how that vid...
Common Craft
Mar 26
Web Site Did You Contact Us March 17-March 23? We experienced a problem with the Contact Us form on this web site from March 17th to March 23rd. Unfortunately, this meant that messag...
Common Craft
Mar 24
Web Site Computer Software in Plain English Computer Software in Plain English Check out all the videos in our "Computer Basics Pack" pack: Computer Hardware in ...
Common Craft
Mar 19
Web Site British Councils Ban Jargon This BBC article explains that Local Government Associations (LGAs) have banned the used of cliches and jargon in a effort to communica...
Common Craft
Mar 10
Web Site Video: Truly Uncut - A Complete Common Craft Video Shoot This video captures the raw footage from the shooting of "Computer Hardware in Plain English. Video shoots like this usually take 4-6 ho...
Common Craft
Nov 25
Web Site Being Lightweight: Planting the Right Plants If you don't like yardwork, you have a choice.  You can hire gardeners or you can plant things that don't require much c...
Common Craft
Nov 23
Web Site Lessons in Starting Over The last few weeks have been both frustrating and enlightening here at Common Craft headquarters. We're in the middle of an ambitious...
Common Craft
Nov 19
Web Site Client Video: Windows Live.com Common Craft was hired by Microsoft to help explain the new Windows Live.com.  We were so excited to work with a local organization on a...
Common Craft
Nov 19
Web Site Going to Seattle Mind Camp 5.0 After having been out of town for four Seattle MindCamps prior to this one, I'm excited to finally get to attend.  MindCamp...
Common Craft
Nov 17
Web Site Introducing: The Common Craft Explainer Network A few weeks ago, we posted "Seeking Producers of Video Explanations" and wrote: We see an opportunity for a win-win.  Every...
Common Craft
Nov 13
Web Site What is an Explanation? Sachi and I been talking about this and we're curious what you think.  What is an explanation? What are the skills required to be ...
Common Craft
Nov 3
Web Site The Election Video - One More Time, This Time With Feeling We orginally published this video on July 30th, but it all comes together in real life tomororw on Election Day.  If you have any ques...
Common Craft
Nov 3
Web Site Client Video: Ford Sync in Plain English We were hired by Ford Motor Company and Social Media Group to produce this video about Sync - a Microsoft technology that uses voice...
Common Craft
Oct 27
Web Site Seeking Producers of Video Explanations We see an opportunity for a win-win.  Every day, we receive multiple emails from organizations that are looking for custom explanatory...
Common Craft
Oct 17
Web Site Google Docs Video: Over a Million Views on You Tube Yay! I just noticed that we've reached a statistical milestone. For the first time, a video we produced "Google Docs in Plain ...
Common Craft
Oct 16
Web Site What To Do About Copy-Cats? For quite a while now, we’ve been flattered to see others create videos that appear very similar to ours. In many cases, these are posi...
Common Craft
Oct 8
Web Site Don't Forget about Zombies! (in Plain English) We made this video about a year ago to help make sure our fans protect their brains during the scary Halloween season. Enjoy! ...
Common Craft
Oct 6
Web Site You've Spoken: Common Craft and Politics Through nearly 50 comments and 15-20 emails, you have spoken. You don't want to see politics on Common Craft. I agree that it is th...
Common Craft
Oct 3
Web Site Not Talking Politics is Hard Sachi and I have an ongoing discussion that I want to share with you, dear reader, because I want to hear your feedback. When I wa...
Common Craft
Sep 25
Web Site Interview with Principled Innovation Yesterday I had a great talk/interview with Jeff DeCagna of Principled Innovation for his P.I. Podcast.  We talked about the Common C...
Common Craft
Sep 23
Web Site Building a New Foundation for Common Craft For the last few months, we've been "foundation building."  For us, this means taking the time to focus on the business ...
Common Craft
Sep 19
Web Site Teachers Make Our Day Hi, I am a teacher at a middle school in Ohio, I just shared your electoral college video with my kids and thy got it!!!!!  Your expla...
Common Craft
Sep 14
Web Site Why I Stopped Reading Blogs (for a while) 1000 items.  That's what Google Reader told me I need to read to catch up with my RSS subscriptions.  It's intimidating.  M...
Common Craft
Sep 10
Web Site Independent Publishing on Amazon's Kindle (Two Stories) [Note: This is my second post in a row about Amazon. I can assure you that although I am a fan,  I (or Common Craft) am not affiliated...
Common Craft
Sep 8
Web Site Amazon Fresh - Now Home Delivering Top Amazon.com Items Living in Seattle, a test-market for Amazon Fresh, we signed up and never looked back. Ordering groceries online and having them delive...