Podcast Awesome
On Podcast Awesome we talk to members of the Font Awesome team about icons, design, tech, business, and of course, nerdery.
🎙️ Podcast Awesome is your all-access pass into the creative engine behind Font Awesome — the web’s favorite icon toolkit. Join host Matt Johnson and the Font Awesome crew (and friends) for deep dives into icon design, front-end engineering, software development, healthy business culture, and a whole lot of lovingly-rendered nerdery.
From technical explorations of our open-source tooling, chats with web builders, icon designers, and content creators, with the occasional gleeful rants about early internet meme culture, we bring you stories and strategies from the trenches of building modern web software — with a healthy dose of 80s references and tech dad jokes.
🎧 Perfect for:
- Icon design and content-first thinking
- Creative process and collaborative design
- Work-life balance in tech
- Remote team culture and async collaboration
- Internet history, meme archaeology, and other nerd ephemera
🧠 Come for the design wisdom, stay for the deep meme cuts and beautifully crafted icons.
Podcast Awesome
Font Awesome's 2022 Year in Review with Matt and Jory
The first episode of Podcast Awesome features host Matt Johnson talking with Jory Raphael about what's coming up in 2023, and gives listeners a taste of what they can expect in the first season. Podcast Awesome will feature "Nerd Shows and Tells," in which members of Font Awesome's team discuss the work they've done in recent sprints (referred to as "splits" in FA speak), as well as the company culture that stems from their semiannual company meetup, affectionately known as "the Snuggle".
After feeling nervous at first, Matt was encouraged to take on the role as host of Podcast Awesome by Travis Chase. Matt has enjoyed learning to use the technology to put the podcast together and is also responsible for the media, social media, blogs, and web copy.
In addition, Matt and Jory talk about the aforementioned bi-annual Snuggle, an event where the team can connect and have fun together doing nerdy activities like playing Dungeons and Dragons, and watching sci-fi shows and movies together — all activities that build trust and goodwill among the team.
In the last Snuggle, Mike Wilkerson and Ed Emanuel developed a prototype for the Icon Wizard (in beta release now). Often, conversations during the Snuggle spark new ideas and lots of great work has come from several Snuggle times.
Jory and Matt also discuss the 2022 year in review, which includes:
- The Launch of Font Awesome 6!
- How to Blast Your Boredom by Playing Space Awesome!
- Classing Up Your Project With Font Awesome Sharp Icons
- Shoelace Joins Font Awesome
- How to Wield Near Infinite Icon Magic With the Icon Wizard
- And more!
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Timestamps
0:00:09
Conversation between Matt Johnson and Jory Rafael on the Inaugural Episode of Podcast Awesome
0:03:57
Review of Font Awesome's 2022 Accomplishments and Plans for 2023
0:05:54
The Benefits of Team Building Activities at Font Awesome
0:11:25
Exploring Nerdy Interests with Mike
0:13:03
Exploring Dungeons & Dragons, Nerd Show & Tell, and Traditional European Martial Arts
0:17:45
Conversation on Enjoying Hobbies and Passions
0:19:05
Discussing the 2022 Roundup and Plans for 2023
0:20:46
Font Awesome 6 Launch and Space Awesome
0:25:16
Exploring Space Awesome: How Ed learned VueJs
0:27:15
Exploring Font Awesome's Icon Sets and Recent Releases
0:31:54
The Origins of Font Awesome's Icon Wizard Feature (it was originally called, "F.A.R.T.S")
0:33:44
Collaboration between Font Awesome and the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to Create Humanitarian Icons
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Links:
- Ronnie Martin composed the Font Awesome theme song
- Zach Malm composed the 8-bit styled music segues
- Audio mastering by Chris Enns and Lemon Productions
Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!
