Podcast Awesome

Podcast Awesome

On Podcast Awesome we talk to members of the Font Awesome team about icons, design, tech, business, and of course, nerdery.

Episodes

March 26, 2024 31 mins

Episode Description

Have you ever wondered which unique genius you bring to the table at work? In this podcast we chat with Jory Raphael, Rob Madole, and Lindsay Miller, as we dissect Patrick Lencioni's "6 Types of Working Genius" framework. It's not just about identifying whether you're a genius of enablement or invention; it's recognizing how these strengths play out in the real world. We al...

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Episode Summary:

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, we dive deep into the story of Font Awesome founders Dave Gandy and Travis Chase, as they reminisce about their remarkable journey through Y Combinator, the prestigious tech accelerator. The conversation offers listeners an exclusive look into the world of startups, challenges, and triumphs that come with being a part of such an intensive program.


Dave and Travis recount the r...

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February 27, 2024 35 mins

About the Guest:

Dave Gandy is Font Awesome's Founder and an MIT alumnus who hails from Carl Junction, Missouri, and reflects on his experience transitioning from a small-town environment to the competitive halls of MIT. With a background rooted in both art and technology, Dave specialized in human-centric product design and has a strong belief in the interplay between creativity, empathy, and engineering. Detailing his educati...

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In the tech industry, the dynamic between developers and designers looms large - and their collaboration (or lack thereof) influences the outcome of a project. These two distinct disciplines with their specialized terminologies and ways of thinking, often find the need to bridge the gap, to ensure a cohesive and functional deliverable. In this podcast we chat with Cory LaViska, Jory Raphael, and Noah Jacobus to discuss the challeng...

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January 30, 2024 33 mins

Episode Summary:
In this episode of Podcast Awesome, we chat with Jory Raphael and Rob Madole from the Font Awesome team. They discuss the various projects and updates that Font Awesome has worked on in 2023, including the launch of Font Awesome Sharp, the creation of a Figma plugin, and improvements to Font Awesome's Kits and release process. They also touch on their partnership with Shoelace and hint at exciting things t...

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In this podcast Matt and Travis discuss Shape Up, a project management philosophy created by 37 Signals, the makers of Basecamp, and how it helps Font Awesome stay on track. Instead of trying to build everything at once, Font Awesome ships complete features. By using the Shape Up method, Font Awesome has been able to deliver products efficiently and effectively, which reduces the risk of delivering an unsatisfactory product.

The tra...

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On this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt chats with Font Awesome founder Dave Gandy about Patrick Lencioni's ideas behind Working Genius. They discuss how the six types of Working Genius help identify working strengths and weaknesses, creating more effective teams and getting more done efficiently. Dave explains how their company got introduced to Lencioni's ideas and how they started doing leadership training. They empha...

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October 5, 2023 36 mins

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, we chat with software engineer Jason Otero about his recent work on Font Awesome Kits, the benefits of working on six-week splits, and his love for playing guitar in two different bands. Tune in for an engaging discussion on tech, business, and nerdery.

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Time Stamps

[00:00:36] Six week splits vs two week sprints.

[00:05:57] New method of loading Kits.

...

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Dive into the minds of Font Awesome's Jory Raphael and Noah Jacobus as they discuss their unique approach to design process. Discover how they balance structure and creativity in the ever-evolving world of icon design.

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TIMESTAMPS
[00:01:23] Design process.
[00:05:01] High level sketching.
[00:07:45] Figma for interface design.
[00:10:39] Designing dinosaur icons.
[00:14:08] ...

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In our latest installment of the Nerd Show and Tell, we have the pleasure of chatting with Kelsey Jackson, Font Awesome's Designer and Front End Developer. Maybe you've noticed how slick the Font Awesome site looks these days? Yeah, Kelsey is responsible for quite a bit of that work. 

In this episode, Matt chats with Kelsey about his recent chunk of work where he helped create an internal design system, how he met Dave Gan...

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In this episode of Podcast Awesome, we sit down for a little chat with Noah Jacobus and Jory Raphael and discuss the benefits of using Figma for collaborative design and icon design. They highlight Figma's unique features, such as its Boolean operations and non-destructive vector editing, and compare it to other design software like Adobe Illustrator.

We also touch on the recent acquisition of Figma by Adobe and the ...

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In this episode, we chat with Joey Henson, the Controller at Font Awesome. Throughout his career, Joey has been working in the startup world, which has lasted most of his time, but he has found himself feeling the strain of burnout since the birth of his son. According to Joey, there can be a lot of pressure in the finance world. Everyone works long hours in an effort to justify their existence in a world that's pretty stressf...

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Summary

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt sits down with icon designers Jory Raphael and Noah Jacobus to discuss their experience at the Config conference. They share insights and highlights from the event, including their own talk on drawing icons in Figma. From keynote talks by industry leaders to the importance of collaboration and design-first approaches, this episode covers it all. Tune in to gain valuable insi...

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In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt Johnson interviews icon designers Jory Raphael and Noah Jacobus. They explore the history of Font Awesome and its development over the years. Jory shares how he came to hire Noah, someone he has admired and followed digitally for years (in the biz, it’s called a “designer crush.”) They also discuss their design process and talk a bit about the process of developing the Sharp family of styles...

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On this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt talks with lead programmer Mike Wilkerson from Font Awesome about his professional background and current role at the company. Wilkerson shares his passion for computer programming and tells the story of how he fell in love with coding while working at Walmart. He also discusses his work related to the design tool used by Font Awesome's designers and shares his fandom for the Marble Mac...

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In this episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson talks with Font Awesome founder Dave Gandy about the lessons learned from failing in business and life. They discuss Gandy's experience of flunking out of MIT twice and how it impacted his journey as an entrepreneur. They also delve into a story about the Font Awesome 5 Kickstarter campaign and the self-fulfilling prophecies that can shape our beliefs and reality. Gandy sha...

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In this podcast, Font Awesome founders, Dave Gandy and Travis Chase, discuss how hiring the right people to the team is the first and best approach to building a strong company culture. 


The 37 Signals blog, and their books gave Dave and Travis inspiration on how to do business and software differently. Dave and Travis had both built software together and had proof that they knew how to create user-centric product design, so wh...

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In this episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson interviews Trevor Chase, the technical support member of Font Awesome. Trevor opens up about his career change from a middle school principal to tech support, and also talks about his background in business administration and education. Listeners can also expect to hear about the most common tech support questions Trevor receives and the coffee roasting obsession that started by...

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Our guest in this episode is Cory LaViska, the founder of Shoelace — a component library that makes it easy to build performant, mobile-friendly websites using CSS grids and custom elements APIs.

Matt, Travis, and Cory discuss the partnership between Shoelace and Font Awesome, as well as their own experiences using different design systems and web components. Cory also touches on the benefits and challenges of modern web ...

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In this edition of the Nerd Show and Tell we chat with Ed Emanuel, Senior Developer at Font Awesome. Ed started programming at the age of 12 years old with a TSR 80, and hasn't looked back since. As part of Ed's  ongoing learning, he has been working on a new text-based game based on the Oregon Trail known as Space Awesome since last year. As Ed created Space Awesome, he also used it to learn Vue.JS, and the graphics are ...

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