# Hire Nick > Nick Decker's portfolio: https://hirenick.xyz. Contact: https://hirenick.xyz/contact. MCP: https://hirenick.xyz/mcp Nick Decker is a designer, writer and builder in Cincinnati. He runs [The Studiolo](https://thestudiolo.com), a strategy and design practice for makers and small businesses, and before that worked at Funny or Die, United Talent Agency and The Tryon Theatre. Lately he builds instruments. [Create-o-matic](https://createomatic.xyz) is a free, open-source lab for type, colour, motion and texture; the poster up top runs on it, and you can take what you make. [Dig This](https://digthis.website) takes any website apart into its type, colour, motion, copy and makers, and lets agents dig through it too. [Verbatim](https://github.com/thisisnickdecker/verbatim) saves conversations, transcripts and whole sites as Markdown, then tells you whether it got all of it. He digs until he finds the angle, then makes it plain. This site is built with Claude Code: Nick directs, the agent types, and every decision is written down. These words are set by [Pretext](https://github.com/chenglou/pretext), Cheng Lou's layout library, which measures each line without asking the browser. Grab the button and move it; the words get out of its way. [Hiring?](#fit) Type your company below. The site will find your open roles and ask your own AI whether he fits. He's open to contract, fractional and full-time work, or a project through the studio. [Get in touch.](https://hirenick.xyz/contact) # Selected work ## Create-o-matic A free, open-source playground of browser instruments for making type, color, texture and motion. - URL: https://createomatic.xyz - Source: https://github.com/thisisnickdecker/create-o-matic - Status: Live · in active development - Years: 2026 ### What it does Create-o-matic is a set of instruments that run in the browser. Motion stretches words and logos through a breathing grid or a golden spiral and loops them. The Texture lab is a darkroom for any image or video: stack risograph, halftone, photocopy, film grain and your own scans, each with its own blend mode. The Type tester sets your own words in fonts from the open catalogue, your Adobe Fonts or your files, side by side. The Colour lab and Brand bench handle palettes, contrast checks and a downloadable brand kit. The live site has grown past the README. It now lists ten tools, adding Showroom, Spirotype, a Carousel creator, Stop motion and a Site reader that pulls any website's colors and type. Everything exports. Video comes out as MP4, WebM, GIF or MOV, stills as PNG, palettes as CSS, JSON or an Adobe swatch file, and Motion loops can be embedded live on another site. Each piece of work is a small JSON patch, and the same patch makes the same frames every time. ### Why it exists Nick wanted tools that are reusable, reproducible and well made, and that anyone can take apart. The home page puts it plainly: a free, open-source lab for type, color, motion and texture, with the line "We hope it's useful." It is also a working demonstration of his house rules: no build step, no frameworks, every control declared once, and nothing marked as working until it has been exported and checked. ### How it's built Stack: Vanilla JavaScript (ES modules), Canvas, WebCodecs, Cloudflare Pages, Pages Functions, Node test runner - Every engine is a pure function, render(ctx, patch, t): no clock, no Math.random, seeded randomness from packages/core/rng.js. The preview, every exporter and every embed call the same function, so loops close exactly. - Every control lives in an instrument's instrument.json. The control rack, presets, keyframes and scripting API all read from that one declaration, and every instrument runs inside the shared shell in web/packages/core/shell.js. - No browser writes ProRes, so Nick's repo includes its own: web/packages/core/prores.js encodes ProRes 4444 with alpha and mov.js writes the QuickTime file. The README records how exports were decoded with ffmpeg and AVFoundation and compared frame by frame against the engine. - The one server part is functions/api/read.js, the Site reader. It fetches public pages only, checks every redirect hop against blocked private address ranges, and spots bot walls instead of reading them as the site. ### Facts - Tools live: 10 - Exports: MP4 · WebM · GIF · MOV · PNG - Shared effects: 16 - Build step: None - Licence: MIT ### Brand - White: #FFFFFF - Grey 100: #F0F0EE - Grey 600: #6B6B65 - Ink: #121211 - Accent (default; the colour knob turns it): #E93D4C - Neue Haas Grotesk Display (Titles; Adobe Fonts kit gfn7ugl (licensed via Adobe, not redistributable)) - Neue Haas Grotesk Text (All other UI and running text, tabular figures; Adobe Fonts kit gfn7ugl (licensed via Adobe, not redistributable)) ## dig this. Crate digging for the internet: websites taken apart into type, color, motion, copy, code and makers. - URL: https://digthis.website - Status: Live · early - Years: 2026 ### What it does dig this. is a library of websites, each one split into what Nick calls stems: the typeface, the colors, the motion, the copy, the code and the people who made it. You dig the sites you love, keep them in crates (shareable playlists, really) and mix pieces from different crates into a brief an AI agent can build from. On November 2, 2026 the library held 474 sites. Each site has its own page with screenshots, a phone view and a time machine you can drag through its history from the Internet Archive. There is a Shuffle button in memory of StumbleUpon, a Compare view, member profiles and share cards sized for texting and decks. A Chrome extension and a bookmarklet let you dig whatever page you're on; the extension is downloadable now and listed as on its way to the Chrome Web Store. It speaks MCP. Agents can search the library, read crates and palettes and, with a member's own key, create and fill crates. The /agents page gives the one-line command to connect it to Claude Code. ### Why it exists Nick describes himself as a collector with too many open tabs, and wrote that his problem "has never been a shortage of ideas" but getting them down and grounded. The name comes from record stores: DJs crate dig for the one drum break nobody noticed, then build something new around it, and he sees designers, writers and founders doing the same. He'd wanted something like this for most of twenty years and built the first working version in about 24 hours, much of it by voice from his car. In his words, he doesn't want another place to hoard links. He wants a reason to share more of them. ### How it's built Stack: Next.js 15, React 19, TypeScript, Cloudflare Workers (OpenNext), D1, R2, Workers AI, Resend, Vitest - Every API handler is a plain (Request, Env) function in src/server/api.ts. The files under src/app/api only bind them to URLs, so the tests run exactly what the Worker runs, against in-memory SQLite with the real migrations. - The MCP server has ten read tools in src/server/mcp.ts (search_sites, get_palette, dig_url, shuffle and others) and eight write tools in src/server/agent.ts. Apps can connect through OAuth 2.1 with dynamic client registration and PKCE (src/server/oauth.ts). - Built to be read by machines as well as people: /llms.txt, an open /data.json, a Markdown copy of every site page at /sites//index.md, and a robots.txt that allows search and AI input but not training. - Browsing is public; the first Dig asks for sign-in. A site dug by URL lands in its digger's crate at once but waits in a review queue until Nick approves it for the front page. ### Facts - Sites in the library: 474 (Nov 2, 2026) - MCP tools: 18 (10 read, 8 write) - First version: About 24 hours, Oct 20–21, 2026 - Ways in: Web · Chrome extension · bookmarklet · iPhone Shortcut · MCP ### Brand - Paper: #F2F2F0 - Ink: #111111 - Soft: #6B6B66 - Orange (fills): #FF542F - Orange ink (text): #C23A1A - Neue Haas Grotesk Display (Display; Adobe Fonts kit wxf5map (licensed via Adobe, not redistributable)) - Neue Haas Grotesk Text (Body and UI; Adobe Fonts kit wxf5map (licensed via Adobe, not redistributable)) - Georgia (Titles on book and paper cards; System font) ## nickdecker.net Nick's own site: a short bio up front, with a blog, work archive, bookshelf and lab behind it. - URL: https://nickdecker.net - Status: Live - Years: 2026 ### What it does The home page is one paragraph. Nick is a Cincinnati-based designer, writer and builder, owner of The Studiolo, formerly of Funny or Die, United Talent Agency and The Tryon Theatre. Every interest in that paragraph is a link into the rest of the site. Behind it: a blog, a filterable archive of 95 posters, identities and typography pieces, a bookshelf of 130 books with notes, a public notebook of marginalia, a working paper called What I Believe, a page of fixed-price offers and a case study of his own house. The lab holds the Era Machine, which dresses the same words in decades of web design, and a playable damper piano. At the foot of every page sits a small machined dial. Turn it and the site's warm colors rotate around the color wheel, and your browser remembers where you left it. ### Why it exists It is the place Nick works things out in public. The blog's own description is "Working out the ideas rattling around my noggin." The site keeps his writing, reading, design work and experiments under one address he owns, and it doubles as the testing ground for ideas that later become their own projects: dig this. started as a static prototype in its lab. ### How it's built Stack: Hand-written HTML and CSS, Vanilla JavaScript, Cloudflare Pages, Pages Functions, D1, Resend, Python and Node build scripts - The color knob (public/knob.js) turns the warm palette in 15° steps using relative OKLCH colors in site.css, for example oklch(from #C43A3E l c calc(h + var(--h))). A one-line head script applies the saved setting before first paint so nothing flashes. - One middleware file (functions/_middleware.js) canonicalizes the host, locks /drafts and the private Supper Club behind passwords, and injects the shared footer and knob into every page that uses site.css. - The contact form and blog subscriptions run as Pages Functions (functions/api/) sending through Resend. New posts go out by email with tools/send-post.py. - Share images for the blog, notes and spreads are generated by scripts in tools/ (blog-og.mjs, site-og.mjs, spread-og.mjs) rather than made by hand. ### Facts - Work archive: 95 pieces - Bookshelf: 130 books - Commits: 298 since Sept 25, 2026 - Colour knob: 24 detents, 15° apart ### Brand - Paper: #F4F4F1 - Ink: #1A1714 - Ember (links): #C43A3E - Ember hot (hover): #E93D4C - Warm grey: #7A746C - Neue Haas Grotesk Display (Display and headings; Adobe Fonts kit sge7aac (licensed via Adobe, not redistributable)) - Neue Haas Grotesk Text (Body and small labels; Adobe Fonts kit sge7aac (licensed via Adobe, not redistributable)) - ui-monospace / SF Mono (Colour knob readout; System font) ## The Studiolo The website for Nick's strategy and design practice in New Richmond, Ohio. - URL: https://thestudiolo.com - Status: Live · rebuild planned - Years: 2026 ### What it does The Studiolo is Nick's practice: brand and identity, websites, video and flyers, and AI and infrastructure for small businesses. The live site opens on two paths. Existing businesses can order a Gap Report, a $200 written study of how a stranger finds and experiences them online. People starting something new can book a $200 recorded Kickoff Call. The Package Builder at /build walks a client through five steps (where they are, a foundation tier, add-ons, a start date, contact details) and emails them a detailed proposal. The /ideas page is a printed flyer turned into a form: hand-drawn artwork with real labels underneath, for people who scanned one of the flyers Nick puts up around town. The site needs rebuilding, and it shows. The home page, llms.txt and the newer positioning on nickdecker.net ("makers and small businesses") describe the practice in three different ways, and the newer wording sits on an unmerged branch. ### Why it exists On the About page Nick writes that he keeps seeing gifted people building something real who are overwhelmed by the business of running it, and that he wants to be one person who can hold the whole picture: brand, website, AI infrastructure, video and marketing. The aim he states is ownership. He isn't trying to make clients dependent on him; he wants them to own the files, the story, the systems and the tools. ### How it's built Stack: Hand-written HTML and CSS, Vanilla JavaScript, Cloudflare Pages, Pages Functions, Resend, R2 - No frameworks, no npm, no build step, and zero border radius anywhere. These are written as hard rules in the repo's CLAUDE.md. - Proposal, idea and contact submissions are Pages Functions (functions/api/proposal.js, idea.js, contact.js) sharing one email system in functions/_lib/email.js. The git history shows a run of fixes to keep those emails readable in Gmail, Proton and dark-mode clients. - On /ideas the form labels are baked into form.webp, so every field also carries a real