Why Handcut Designs became One Web Nerd
I started Handcut Designs, Inc. in 2013 mostly because I needed a legitimate business name for client work, contracts and invoicing.
The name itself came from something much less strategic: french fries.
I remember seeing “hand-cut fries” on a restaurant menu and wondering whether someone was actually cutting every potato by hand, or whether “hand cut” was just the name of the style. Either way, I thought it sounded good. It suggested something made carefully, by hand, instead of something generic or mass produced.
So Handcut Designs was born.
For a long time, the name worked well enough. I used it for freelance and client work while building websites, graphics, marketing materials and whatever else was needed. Over the years I worked with restaurants, artists, nonprofits, local businesses and larger organizations, and the kind of work I was doing kept expanding.
The name, however, did not get any clearer.
More than once, people assumed Handcut Designs had something to do with hair. Others thought it sounded like tailoring, woodworking or some kind of craft business. I understood why. The name had personality, but it did not really explain what I did.
At the same time, my work had become much more focused.
Websites were always at the center of it, but the work around them became just as important. Fixing things that were broken. Improving older sites. Moving sites between platforms. Managing hosting, domains and email. Helping with content, forms, analytics, photography, graphics, print materials and the many small technical problems that come with running a business online.
That experience came from years of working through Handcut Designs, but also from my time at LKH&S, where I worked on larger client websites and ongoing web operations. Working with both smaller businesses and larger organizations helped reinforce something I had already learned: most clients are not looking for technology for the sake of technology. They are trying to get something done.
Sometimes they need a new website. Sometimes they need someone to repair an old one. Sometimes the site is fine, but the hosting is a mess, the forms are not working, the content is outdated, or nobody quite knows who owns the domain.
That is much closer to what I actually do.
So when it came time to rethink my own site and how I wanted to present the business, I wanted the name to be simpler and more obvious.
One Web Nerd felt right.
It says web. It says there is a person behind it. It does not try to sound like a large agency, and it does not suggest that every project needs to become a massive production.
The idea behind One Web Nerd is pretty simple: if something about your website or online presence needs attention, I can help figure out what it is, what matters, and what the next step should be.
That might mean fixing something small. It might mean rebuilding the site. It might mean improving what is already there rather than starting over. It might mean helping with the other pieces around the website that businesses often end up juggling on their own.
Handcut Designs is still part of the story. It is where a lot of this work started, and technically it is still the company behind the scenes. But One Web Nerd is a much better description of what the work has become.
After more than a decade, that feels like a pretty good reason to change the sign on the door.
For the images, I’d place one older Handcut Designs logo or website image shortly after the fries/name-origin section, then one or two more HD-era visuals around the paragraph about how the work expanded. Near the transition to One Web Nerd, I’d show two or three logo-development images, ending with the current OWN logo.