Podcast Awesome

What is nerdery, really? 🤓 In this episode of Podcast Awesome, we dig into the heart of Font Awesome’s culture — inclusive nerdery. It's not about lone geniuses or command line gatekeepers. It’s about heart, curiosity, humility, and building awesome things with other people. 💛👾 You'll hear from FA team members Dave and Travis, plus a few snippets from topics we've covered on our blog and internal convos, all woven together to show how we:🎯 Hire for character over cleverness🔍 Celebrate deep curiosity (hello, nutrition nerds and D&D geeks!)🎉 Create space for serious play through our legendary team "Snuggles"🧠 Foster creativity through snack-sized projects like the Icon Wizard and Space Awesome gameThis episode is for anyone building company culture, or just trying to figure out how to lead with humanity in a techy world.✨ Icons may not change the world, but good people just might.🔍 What You’ll Hear in This Episode:00:00 – Welcome to Nerdery™02:00 – Defining what "nerd" means to us04:00 – Why we hire adults, not rockstars06:00 – Our 3-step hiring philosophy08:00 – Why we host company “Snuggles” (not summits!)10:00 – FARTS, the Icon Wizard & how fun leads to innovation12:00 – Space Awesome: building games on company time (and learning VueJS to boot!)14:00 – Why forced culture doesn’t work16:00 – A culture that’s built to last🔗 Mentioned in the Episode:🧙‍♂️ Space Awesome – FA dev projecthttps://spaceawesome.io/ 🛠 Our Hiring Philosophyhttps://blog.fontawesome.com/company-... ✨ The Icon Wizardhttps://blog.fontawesome.com/icon-wiz... 💼 More About FA Company Culturehttps://blog.fontawesome.com/nerdery/🎵 Theme music by Ronnie Martin🎹 Interstitial music by Zach Malm🎥 Video support by Isaac ChaseStay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

🎬 What do Star Wars, oil painting, and storytelling have in common? Turns out: everything. In this curiosity-fueled episode, filmmaker and multi-hyphenate creative Andy Maier (Soon Agency) joins host Matt Johnson to talk about building a life powered by relentless learning, visual storytelling, and the kind of curiosity that launches careers 🚀.From working with Apple, SpaceX, and Microsoft to touring in his metal band Opponent and picking up oil painting during a creative pivot — Andy is the living embodiment of “just figure it out.” 💥🎨🧠If you've ever felt like the underdog creative, this one’s for you. Andy drops storytelling gems faster than Yoda lifts an X-Wing.🎸 Fun fact: Andy composed the metal version of the Font Awesome theme song in a single day. That’s some serious Jedi speed 🤘.🎙️ What We Cover in This Episode🤖 Why being curious is better than being talented🎥 How oil painting made Andy a better compositor🧱 The concept of “armature” and why your story collapses without one🌱 Why telling the truth is the best brand strategy🤝 The power of surrounding yourself with curious people✨ Building "wells, not fences" in your creative career⚔️ Star Wars, Iron Giant, and the real meaning of “The Force”⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – Welcome to Podcast Awesome 01:00 – Meet Andy Maier: Creative Jedi & Founder of Soon 02:30 – Early creative career and figuring it out on the fly 05:15 – The underestimated power of curiosity 08:20 – From DIY music videos to working with Apple and SpaceX 10:45 – Why storytelling is better than trends 13:30 – Building a creative life around community and friendships 16:00 – How oil painting made Andy better at... everything 19:00 – The merch moment: painting turned t-shirt design 22:00 – What’s real? How to build grounded storytelling 26:30 – Invisible Ink, Brian McDonald, and story armature 101 32:00 – Why Marvel’s Phase 4 struggles (and what X-Men got right) 34:00 – Star Wars, Joseph Campbell, and unlocking “the Force” 37:45 – Where to find Andy and his work 38:30 – Bonus: The origin of the metal FA theme song 🤘🔗 Links & Resources 🔥 Andy’s work – https://www.soon.agency 🎶 Andy’s band Opponent – https://www.solidstaterecords.com/opponent 📖 Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald – https://shorturl.at/E9101 🖖 Font Awesome’s Heavy Metal Icon Episode – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FlsrtKCI1Y 🎧 More Podcast Awesome episodes – https://podcastawesome.com #PodcastAwesome #StorytellingMatters #CreativeJedi #VisualStorytelling #FilmmakerLife #MotionGraphicsArtist #DesignNerds #FontAwesome #CuriosityWins #InvisibleInk #CreativeProcess #OilPaintingForDesigners #BuildWellsNotFences #NerdCulture #MetalVibesOnly #StarWarsStorytelling #MakeSomethingAwesomeStay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

Episode SummaryWhat does it really take to ship something as powerful, polished, and downright magical as Web Awesome? In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt sits down with Lindsay and Cory, the dynamic duo behind the official launch of Web Awesome. Together, they peel back the curtain on how the team brought a customizable design system to life (without summoning any cursed CSS incantations).From the slick Theme Builder to the deeply thoughtful Figma integration, from production-ready patterns to future-forward prototyping dreams, this convo is packed with insights for devs, designers, and nerds of all kinds. Get the scoop on stretch goals, community feedback, and why starting with a “sh*tty first draft” is actually a power move.Oh! And they may or may not be plotting a future where we don’t even need Figma anymore. Gasp!What We Cover in This Episode:🛠 The design magic behind the Theme Builder🎨 Patterns and why you shouldn’t reinvent the checkout form🧩 The current state of Figma files — and where they’re headed🧪 Bridging the gap between prototyping and real code🔮 A sneak peek at future stretch goal components (hello, toasts and video!)⚡ How Web Awesome + Eleventy = your new dream dev stack🗣 Why your newbie feedback matters more than you thinkTimestamps00:00 – Welcome & introductions01:45 – Life after launch: relief or revving up?03:30 – Making the Theme Builder powerful and friendly05:40 – Patterns that just work (and why that's a good thing)07:30 – Balancing usability and delightful surprises08:15 – Figma files, MVP vibes, and real feedback10:20 – The future of theming via Figma plugins12:00 – Stretch goal components: what’s shipped and what’s next14:30 – Why prototyping with code might replace Figma16:45 – Web Awesome meets Eleventy: the ultimate team-up19:00 – Templates, page builders, and lowering the barrier to entry20:30 – Why new users’ feedback is gold22:00 – How to connect with the team & share your experienceLinks & Resources🌐 [Web Awesome](https://webawesome.com)📣 [Join the Community](https://webawesome.com/community)🧵 [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/webawesome/webawesome/discussions)📬 Email: [help@webawesome.com](mailto:help@webawesome.com) / [hello@webawesome.com](mailto:hello@webawesome.com)💬 Join us on Discord – link on the community page!🧠 Learn more about [Jacob’s Law](https://lawsofux.com/jakobs-law/)🎁 Don’t forget: 20% off Web Awesome Pro until Nov 19th!Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

Episode Summary:We're heading back to the basement — (sort of). In this episode, Matt catches up with Mike Wilkerson, the OG guest of Podcast Awesome, to unveil the biggest update yet to the official Font Awesome WordPress plugin. From block editor visual support to full-on SVG injection wizardry (yes, that’s a thing), this version is all about giving developers and designers more power, more precision, and fewer plugin conflicts.Whether you’re a WordPress purist or a page builder rebel, you’ll walk away knowing how to get your icons looking sharp, staying pro, and loading like a dream.🧠 What We Cover in This Episode:🔌 The origin story of the plugin (and the furnace that helped launch it)🧱 Full block editor visual editing support (finally WYSIWYG!)🛠️ SVG injection + self-hosting benefits🛡️ How to squash plugin conflicts like a pro🔍 Page builder struggles—and what might be coming next🤝 How to send feedback to actual humans™ at Font Awesome⏱️ Timestamps:00:00 – Basement beginnings & podcast nostalgia 02:00 – WordPress + Font Awesome: how widespread is it? 04:00 – Why Version 5 is a game-changer 06:00 – How inline SVGs improve performance and reduce conflict 08:00 – Self-hosting benefits & advanced options 10:00 – When to load (or not load) your kit 12:00 – Compatibility tips for older content 14:00 – What’s next for FA + WordPress 16:00 – How to give feedback to actual humans™🔗 Links & Resources:Official Font Awesome WordPress PluginUsing Kits with WordPressConflict Detection & TroubleshootingEmail us: hello@fontawesome.comStay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

🧠 What do LEGO logos, hand-puppet dreams, citrus gadgets, and naming things "Turbo" have in common? They're all part of Dan Cederholm’s design universe — and part of this wide-ranging, joy-filled second half of our conversation.In this episode, Dan returns to talk about: • Embracing constraints as a creative fuel source• Naming fonts after misspelled words (because ... domains)• The delightful hellscape of naming anything in tech• Why imposter syndrome might actually be useful• And how a puppet changed everything at Font Awesome 🧡🎧 It’s a show-and-tell episode full of unexpected design wisdom, warm fuzzies, and orange peelers.What We Cover in This Episode:• 🧠 Dan’s creative process: one font at a time• 🚫 Naming things is still the hardest problem in tech• 🐀 The birth of the Font Possum Puppet• 🧃 The power of a really good citrus squeezer• 🤖 Why AI can’t fake taste (yet)• 💌 Why Dan's newsletter works (and yours could too)• 😵‍💫 Making peace with imposter syndrome• 🧩 Why being weird is a superpower⏱️ Timestamps00:00 – Intro01:15 – The creative process of typeface design04:04 – Naming fonts is a nightmare06:05 – The importance of naming & branding12:25 – Imposter syndrome in the creative industry18:15 – A puppet changed everything22:31 – Why a newsletter is like old-school blogging29:03 – Orange peelers, joy, and the power of small specificity37:17 – The impact of creativity38:14 – Building community through creativity41:16 – Wrap up with Dan Cederholm42:24 – Final Thoughts & Credits📌 Links & Resources• Dan Cederholm → https://simplebits.com• Dan's newsletter → https://simplebits.com/newsletter• Turbo Typeface → https://simplebits.com/fonts• Font Possum cameo → [FontAwesome YouTube Channel]• BrickLink Studio (Lego design app) → https://www.bricklink.com/v3/studioStay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

SummaryDesigner, author, and co-founder of Dribbble, Dan Cederholm joins Podcast Awesome to chat with Matt Johnson and Jory Raphael about finding joy in creativity later in life, making fonts just for fun, and the art of embracing imperfection. From typefaces and merch to dice games and design detours, Dan shares how side projects, constraints, and a healthy dose of curiosity keep the creative spark alive.This two-part conversation is full of laughter, nostalgia, and lessons about learning new things just because they’re fun. You’ll walk away inspired to make something— anything — awesome.Key TakeawaysCreativity thrives in curiosity: Dan reminds us that learning new things (even outside your job) can reignite your creative energy.Constraints fuel originality: Sometimes not knowing everything — or having limited tools — can sometimes help create the most human, interesting work.Merch can tell a story: From fonts to dice games, playful side projects become part of a designer’s personal brand.Imperfection = personality: The best designs often come with flaws that make them real, memorable, and relatable.Spend time not doing your job: Font Awesome’s team philosophy — creativity grows when you step outside your usual sandbox.Timestamps00:00 — Introduction and catching up with Dan Cederholm02:00 — Typefaces as creative puzzles06:00 — The joy of passion projects10:00 — The first font and lessons from “Chameleon”18:00 — The lineage of icon design and learning from imperfection26:00 — Failures, Field Notes, and finding the next fun thing30:00 — Creative constraints and the beauty of not knowing everything36:00 — Humor, joy, and “making stuff that makes you laugh”38:00 — The icons that exist just because they’re funny42:00 — Hidden glyphs, zombie hands, and bonus icons in fonts44:00 — Wrap-up and where to find Dan onlineRelated LinksSimpleBits.com — Dan’s home for fonts, merch, and creative experimentsDan’s Newsletter — The one Font Awesome staffers never skipDribbble — Co-founded by Dan, still inspiring designers everywhereCreditsProduced and edited by Matt Johnson Video editing by Isaac Chase Theme music by Ronnie Martin Interstitial music by Zach MalmStay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

Build once, run everywhere. In this full-nerd, front-end-leaning episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt sits down with Zach Leatherman (creator of Eleventy) and Konnor Rogers (Web Awesome developer) to chat about how a static site generator just might be the key to building some of the most powerful, performant documentation on the web.We dig deep into Eleventy’s evolution, Web Awesome’s hybrid architecture, and how a team of devs found a way to keep docs fast, flexible, and secure — without rewriting everything from scratch or giving up on open source values. Spoiler: they didn’t go full ExpressJS for fun.Whether you’re a seasoned dev or a newb, this one's packed with insight, edge-case explorations, and some seriously satisfying build-time nerdery.In this episode, we explore:⚡️ Why Eleventy’s simplicity still scales 🧠 Making static sites feel dynamic (without a heavy JS framework) 🔐 How Web Awesome handles auth + private docs with minimal friction 🚫 Avoiding vendor lock-in and runtime gotchas 📦 The future of Eleventy in browsers, edge runtimes, and beyondPull up your terminal. This one’s for you.🔗 Links & Credits🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns (Lemon Productions)🎹 Interstitial music by Zach Malm🎥 Video support by Isaac Chase🔗 Eleventy🔗 Web AwesomeStay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

Inside the UX lessons, internet lore, and surprising comeback of ClippyLove him or loathe him, you remember him. Clippy — the googly-eyed paperclip that lived inside Microsoft Word — has become a permanent fixture in internet culture. But how did a productivity tool become the patron saint of annoying-yet-adorable UI? In this episode of Podcast Awesome, we’re digging into the cult of Clippy with behind-the-scenes insights from Clippy's original creator Kevan Atteberry and Microsoft designer Sam Cundall. From meme fame to Microsoft Teams emoji, Clippy's legacy is more layered than you think.📝 What We Cover in This Episode:📎 Why Clippy was loved and hated🧠 The psychology of nostalgic design🔁 When Microsoft secretly brought Clippy back🤖 What Clippy might teach us about the future of AI assistants✍️ thoughts on reviving legacy designs the right way⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 – Welcome to the Cult of Clippy 02:00 – The origin story: from helpful to hated 04:30 – Nostalgia and annoyance: why we love to hate him 06:00 – Microsoft’s secret Clippy emoji comeback 08:00 – What makes emoji design "work"? 10:00 – Fun at work: why weirdness builds culture 14:00 – The creator's take: Kevan Atteberry on designing Clippy 20:00 – From embarrassment to pride: Clippy's redemption arc 24:00 – Clippy vs. Siri: The rise of personality-driven UI 26:00 – Final thoughts: where personality fits in UX🔗 Links & Resources:Sam Kundal on LinkedInKevan Atteberry's booksHow to add a paperclip emoji to your UIVote a favorite icon up the leaderboard🎥 Podcast Awesome on YouTube 🎶 The Font Awesome Theme Song – Composed by Ronnie Martin🎸 Music Interstitials by Zach Malm🎬 Produced and edited by Matt Johnson with some extra help from Isaac Chase Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

Have you ever rage-coded your way into building a developer tool that actually fixes things? Burton Smith has. And we’re here for it.In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt and Web Awesome's boss, Cory Laviska chat with Burton Smith. Burton is an open source wizard and creator of the Web Components Toolkit, and he tells us about the gap between the promise of Web Components and the messy reality devs often face.💻 Burton’s toolkit bridges that gap like Gandalf on a DX bender.In this episode we dive into: ⚙️ Developer experience pain points 🧩 Custom Elements Manifests (CEMs) and real-world tooling 🎯 Form-associated custom elements, declarative shadow DOM, and why they still have rough edges 🚀 Why frameworks finally (mostly) play nice with Web Components 📦 How open source tools can fix the stuff we all silently suffer through 🧠 And why making components “just work” should be table stakesThis one’s for devs who are tired of wiring up wrappers, fighting with VS Code autocomplete, or wondering why their component still doesn’t show up right in Storybook.✨ Bonus: We get a little spicy about SSR, headless UI, and whether a global design system is even a thing we want.⏱️ Timestamps00:00 – Welcome to Podcast Awesome 02:00 – Meet Burton Smith: The Stuff Breaker 04:00 – Why Web Components Tooling is (Still) a Pain 06:00 – Closing the Gap Between DX and Dev Reality 12:00 – CEMs, ASTs, and Metadata Magic 20:00 – Form-associated Custom Elements (and the Weird Gaps) 24:00 – Declarative Shadow DOM: Blessing or Band-Aid? 28:00 – SSR, Frameworks, and the Next Frontier 34:00 – Global Design Systems, Gatekeeping, and Interop 42:00 – Headless UI vs. Useless DX 44:00 – How to Support Burton + Where to Find the Toolkit🔗 Links & Resources🌐 Burton’s Toolkit: https://wc-toolkit.com🧙‍♂️ Follow Burton on GitHub: https://github.com/Breakstuff🐦 Burton on Social: @StuffBreaker📄 Learn more about Custom Elements Manifest: https://github.com/webcomponents/custom-elements-manifest🛠️ Web Awesome: https://webawesome.dev🧡 Shoutout to all you open sourcers building magic after hours🎥 Podcast Awesome on YouTube 🎶 The Font Awesome Theme Song – Composed by Ronnie Martin🎸 Music Interstitials by Zach Malm🎬 Produced and edited by Matt Johnson with some extra help from Isaac Chase Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

🔴 “Excuse me … I believe you have my stapler?”One line. Infinite memes. A red-hot icon.In this episode of The Story Behind the Icon, we dive deep into the surprisingly rich lore behind the humble office stapler — and how a cult classic film, a soft-spoken cubicle dweller, and a spray-painted prop turned it into a cultural artifact.🎧 Whether you’ve got 37 pieces of flair or just enough sarcasm to survive corporate life, this one’s for the design nerds, Office Space devotees, and UI jokesters looking for the perfect button metaphor.🔍 What We Cover in This Episode🔴 The origin story of Milton’s beloved red stapler 🎞️ Mike Judge’s animated roots and early Office Space shorts 💻 Remote work, legacy office gear, and the evolution of workplace design 🧑‍💼 Font Awesome’s very own “Milton” and the logic behind the madness 🎨 How to recreate Milton’s soul in HTML with our duotone icon 🎬 The real reason Swingline started making red staplers⏰ Timestamps00:00 – Welcome to Podcast Awesome 01:25 – A new take on the old office 02:40 – Meet Milton: The patron saint of passive resistance 04:20 – Mike Judge: From Beavis and Butthead to box office satire 05:55 – The stapler becomes an icon 06:35 – Meet FA’s own Milton (Hi, Steve 👋) 07:20 – Grumpiness as UI insight 08:05 – Milton’s stapler wasn’t red... until it was 09:00 – Design challenge: Where will you use the stapler icon? 09:50 – Commission your own icon or vote one into existence 10:30 – Credits and a final plea: Return. The. Stapler.🔗 Links & Resources🖇️ Stapler Icon on Font Awesome 📽️ Office Space (1999) 🎨 Vote for an icon on the leaderboard 📝 FA Blog: The Story Behind the Icon Series🎥 Podcast Awesome on YouTube – Full uncut convo with extra music nerdiness 🎶 The Font Awesome Theme Song – Composed by Ronnie Martin 🎸 Music Interstitials by Zach Malm 🎬 Produced and edited by Matt JohnsonStay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!