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
Nerd Show and Tell: Meet Trevor Chase
☕ From Junior High Principal to Pixels: Trevor “The Real Human Technical Support™ Guy” Chase Talks Career Pivots, Debugging Joy & Coffee Obsession
In this Podcast Awesome episode, host Matt Johnson chats with Trevor Chase, Font Awesome’s Real Human Technical Support™ Guy. Once a junior high assistant principal, Trevor made the leap from school hallways to tech tickets — and along the way, discovered a love for debugging... and roasting the perfect cup of Ethiopian coffee.
Trevor opens up about:
- How he transitioned from education into tech support
- The most common licensing and icon questions he fields daily
- Why learning new things is at the heart of his Font Awesome journey
- His grassroots coffee roasting business that started with a popcorn popper
- A once-in-a-lifetime Ethiopian coffee ceremony that sparked a lifelong obsession
- And what it means to reconnect with remote teammates at our beloved team Snuggles
This one’s got 🔧 troubleshooting tips, ☕ artisan-level coffee takes, and ❤️ all the warm fuzzies of working on a remote team that actually gets along.
⏱️ Timestamps
- 01:03 – Trevor's Career Shift from Education to Tech Support
- 03:39 – The Emotional Toll of Being an Assistant Principal
- 06:16 – Joining Font Awesome and Learning On-the-Go
- 06:19 – Most Common Tech Support and Licensing Questions
- 08:14 – Hands-On Learning and Font Awesome’s Education Culture
- 09:32 – Debugging and QA: The Joy of Finding Problems
- 10:53 – Trevor’s Coffee Roasting Journey (From Popcorn Popper to Pro Roaster)
- 13:33 – Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony: A Life-Changing Experience
- 17:10 – Remote Culture and the Importance of the Font Awesome “Snuggle”
🎙️ Highlights
"If I’m ever bored in this job, it’s my own fault — there’s always something to learn." – Trevor Chase“
I started roasting coffee in a popcorn popper... and now my dad and I have a little side business roasting beans from around the world.”
“You roast it over hot coals, and they serve you two shots of the strongest, best coffee you’ve ever had. That Ethiopian ceremony? Changed everything.”
“I love debugging. It’s kind of like putting out fires, which I weirdly enjoyed even as an assistant principal.”“Remote work can get isolating, so I really look forward to our team Snuggles. Getting to know everyone more deeply matters.”
🔗 Links & Credits
- 🔧 Font Awesome Support & Licensing
- 🎬 Mill City Roasters on YouTube
- 🎵 Theme song by Ronnie Martin
- 🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions
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