Have you ever had trouble explaining RSS feeds to your parents or Wikis to your boss? Thanks to a simple idea and smart marketing, the folks at Commoncraft.com have made this problem their bread and butter. Using only paper cut-outs and a video camera, they built a following by making complex concepts easier to understand. And with clients like Google and PR Web, Common Craft’s short explanatory web videos will only continue to expand. Right now they offer free videos for the public like “Social Networking in Plain English” and “Twitter in Plain English” on The Common Craft Show. Higher resolution and improved versions of their videos are also available for purchase at The Common Craft Store. Below is “Podcasting in Plain English” for your viewing enjoyment:

Produced by Hassan S. Ali and Dorothee Royal-Hedinger

Hear ye, city dwellers: Spring is here, and for those of you surrounded by urban sprawl, it’s time to show your neighborhood greenery some love.

“Seed bombing” involves planting flowers on barren land that’s otherwise hard-to-reach or simply not conducive to plant growth, such as construction sites, abandoned lots, and even alleys and sidewalks.

In this episode of “DIY,” we give it a shot for ourselves.

(Photo credits, via Creative Commons License: North Avenue Beach, Skyline, Millenium Park)

Produced by Hassan S. Ali and Dorothee Royal-Hedinger

Taking refuge from the nasty Chicago winter, the folks at Spudnik Press are bringing printmaking to the masses.

Produced by Hassan S. Ali

Death is a funny thing. No really, for the folks at Death by Design—a horror film and special effects company—it can be a pretty entertaining experience.

Produced by Hassan S. Ali and Dorothee Royal-Hedinger

We dropped in on Deborah and Vincent of Avant Gaudy at Blend in Wicker Park, where they chatted about their high-fashion-meets-DIY aesthetic, the need for innovation in personal style, and the fact that people can dress well at any budget.

Their online clothing store offers one of a kind pieces that are surprisingly affordable and has a huge following both in the US and Asia.