Inside Icon Design: Jory Raphael & Noah Jacobus on Font Awesome’s Creative Evolution

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt sits down with Font Awesome’s pixel-pushing power duo, Jory Raphael and Noah Jacobus. It’s a deep dive into the art and nerdery of icon design, from the origins of Font Awesome to the philosophy behind its newest visual frontier: the Sharp family of styles.

Jory lets us in on how a longtime “designer crush” led to hiring Noah, and the two get real about what makes an icon actually, well...iconic. Along the way, they share design secrets, reminisce on the Kickstarter days, and explain how constraint is the mother of creativity.

Whether you're a seasoned designer or someone who just really likes a well-drawn pencil icon, this episode's got you covered with smart takes, strong opinions, and a whole lotta SVG love.

💬 What We Cover in This Episode

🎨 Designer Crush Confessions – how admiration turned into collaboration
💼 From Symbolset to Font Awesome – the acquisition that made sense
🎥 Kickstarter Chaos – behind the scenes of the big launch video
🧠 Designing for Clarity – what makes an icon communicate well
🖼️ Icons as Fine Art – yep, they're basically the cave paintings of the digital age
📏 Embracing Constraints – why limits fuel creativity
🔄 Font Awesome 6 Makeover – the redesign that refreshed the whole brand
🎯 Tips for Budding Designers – how to train your eye and your pencil tool

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00:39 – Designer Crushes
 00:05:57 – Font Awesome acquires Symbolset
 00:08:19 – Creating a video for Kickstarter
 00:11:20 – Designing niche icons
 00:12:10 – Design icons to convey meaning
 00:13:40 – The power of icons
 00:17:02 – Icons as a continuation of art
 00:18:12 – Creativity thrives with constraints
 00:23:36 – Font Awesome 6 redesign
 00:24:45 – Icon design tips
 00:28:49 – Developing artistic taste
 00:30:29 – Practice makes perfect
 00:33:00 – Constantly improving design quality

🔥 Top Noteworthy Quotes

🎨 On Creative Admiration and Hiring

🕶️ On Good Design Being Invisible

🎯 On the Joy of Constraints

💾 On the Real Impact of Their Work

💡 On Artistic Growth and Imperfection

🤯 On Self-Awareness (and Icon Designer Humor)

🔗 Links & Resources

• Font Awesome – Icons you love (and some you didn’t know you needed)
• Symbolset – The icon font predecessor acquired by FA
• 🎵 Theme song by Ronnie Martin
• 🎚️ Audio mastered by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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🧠 From Walmart to Wobbly Circles: Mike Wilkerson Talks Code, Creativity, and Curves

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson chats with Mike Wilkerson, lead programmer at Font Awesome, about the beautiful overlap of programming, design tools, and quirky obsessions like the Marble Machine X.

Mike walks us through his journey from an unexpected start in tech (thanks, Walmart!) to becoming the mastermind behind the internal tools our design team uses every day. Ever wonder what makes an icon wiggle just right? Mike’s got a thing for circles, curves, and SVG perfection — and he explains how even the simplest shapes require complex problem-solving.

🎧 What We Cover in This Episode

• 🛠️ The origin story of Font Awesome’s custom design tools
• 🔵 The mystery of SVG circles and their natural imperfections
• 🌀 Mike's obsession with getting the "wobble" just right
• 🧘 His approach to mindfulness and how it improves his work
• 🥁 Why Martin Molin’s Marble Machine X is his creative muse
• 💡 How loving your work can emerge from the mundane

⏱️ Timestamps

• 00:00:36 – Design Tools for Font Awesome’s Icon Team
• 00:07:24 – SVG Circles That Just Won’t Behave
• 00:07:48 – The Art of Perfecting Imperfections
• 00:12:12 – Mike’s Favorite Font Awesome Icons
• 00:16:57 – Meditation as a Developer Superpower
• 00:19:30 – Fanboying Over the Marble Machine X
• 00:23:40 – Finding Joy in the Everyday Tasks
• 00:26:17 – Loving Good Curves (In Code and Life)

Noteworthy Quotes

🎯 On Falling in Love with Code

🛠️ On Font Awesome’s Internal Design Tool (The Factory)

🔵 On Perfect Circles & SVG Wobble

🎼 On Marble Machine X & Creative Nerdiness

💡 On What Makes Great Work

🔗 Links & Resources

• 🎹 Marble Machine X by Martin Molin
• 🎶 The Font Awesome theme song was composed by Ronnie Martin
• 🎧 Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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🎙️ The Beautiful Catastrophe: Lessons from Failing Forward with Dave Gandy

What if failure wasn’t the end — but the beginning of something awesome?

In this introspective and surprisingly funny episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson sits down with Font Awesome founder Dave Gandy to get real about the stumbles, scrapes, and hard-earned wisdom that came from flunking out of MIT — twice. Yep, twice.

From crashing through academia to launching one of the most successful tech Kickstarters of all time, Dave opens up about the not-so-straight path to building something meaningful, and the strange truth that sometimes... believing the lie is part of what makes it real.

This one’s a goldmine for startup dreamers, believers in second (and third) chances, and anyone who’s failed their way into something better.

🔹 What We Cover in This Episode

• 🎓 Dave’s two-time flunk from MIT and what it taught him
• 🔄 How failure can be rebranded as feedback
• 🚀 Behind-the-scenes chaos (and hope!) of the Font Awesome 5 Kickstarter
• 🔮 The psychology of self-fulfilling prophecies
• 🤝 Finding the right co-founders and learning to trust again
• 🧠 Why doing hard things is the ultimate learning machine

⏱️ Timestamps

• 00:04:54 Failure is not final.
• 00:07:30 Embrace reality and grow.
• 00:10:06 Failure is an opportunity for growth.
• 00:18:56 Nothing is ever truly failure.
• 00:23:25 Find trustworthy partners for success.
• 00:27:05 Trust your teammates.
• 00:29:09 Try hard things and learn.

🎙️ Noteworthy Quotes from Dave Gandy on Failure, Reality, and Resilience

• "A startup is nothing more than believing a lie long enough that it becomes the truth."
• "Failure is really nothing more than reality attempting to introduce itself to us."
• "Most companies don’t ever recognize that this will almost certainly not be the last place you ever work. Climbing somebody else’s ladder is always a form of failure."
• "The only real failure is giving up, giving in… not making a conscious choice."
• "Nothing is ever failure if you’ve done it the right way — the way you think is right and healthy."
• "If we're only ever succeeding in life, that means we're never trying anything hard enough that truly challenges us."
• "Humility is one of the things we look for most in people we hire."
• "I can always come up with a reason why something is somebody else's fault. That’s why humility is such a key component."
• "Try hard things and find the right person to do them alongside."
• "There are two kinds of successful failures: choosing to stop because it’s wise, and choosing to go on because it’s wise. The only truly awful one is stopping without making the choice."

📎 Links & Resources

• Y Combinator
• MIT
• Make Some People Want: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Font Awesome's 2017 Kickstarter
• The Font Awesome theme song was composed by Ronnie Martin
• Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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🎙️ Why We Hire for Humility (Over Skill) — Building a People-First Culture at Font Awesome

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt, Dave Gandy, and Travis Chase get real about what makes a company culture thrive — and it starts with hiring the right humans. Not “rock stars.” Not “ninjas.” Not “10x devs.” Just humble, collaborative people who love to learn and do great work.

Dave and Travis share how they took inspiration from 37signals’ books and blog, decided to ditch the ego-heavy hiring tropes, and chose instead to build a people-first culture at Font Awesome. That meant rethinking how they assess new team members — with a focus on character over clout.

This episode unpacks lessons they've learned, mistakes they avoided, and what it means to work with folks you'd actually want to build things (and grab tacos) with.

⏱️ Timestamps

• 00:13 – Creating a Unique Work Culture
• 02:26 – Exploring the Possibilities of Entrepreneurship
• 04:07 – How Basecamp Found Success Through Dignity
• 05:32 – Hiring Practices That Actually Work
• 07:06 – The Rock Star Myth and Its Fallout
• 08:26 – Work Product vs. Character Fit
• 12:05 – Hiring for Humility and Growth
• 14:19 – Trust-Building and Healthy Disagreements
• 15:53 – Humility: The Culture Code

🔗 Links & Resources

• 37signals
• Company Culture: Why We Hire for Humility (Over Skill)
• Theme song composed by Ronnie Martin
• Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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Highlights

🎯 Culture & Vision

💼 Hiring & Team Fit

🧠 Growth & Humility

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☕ 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

🔗 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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🧩 Shoelace & Web Components: Building Better UI with Cory LaViska

In this Nerd Show and Tell episode, we lace things up with Cory LaViska, creator of Shoelace — a modern component library that makes it stupid-easy to build snappy, accessible, mobile-first websites using CSS grids and Web Components.

Matt joins Travis Chase and Cory for a jam-packed convo on:

• How Shoelace + Font Awesome work together like peanut butter and SVGs 🍯
• Why Web Components are the future of design systems (and sanity)
• What it takes to stay sharp with modern web standards
• And, yes, why Travis still doesn’t have a Shoelace icon 😤

Cory also reveals his favorite culinary-themed icon, drops wisdom on open source generosity, and reminds us all why boring ol’ PHP was a gateway drug to building cool things on the web.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 05:04 – Customizing CSS with Shoelace
• 08:10 – Reusable Components & Brand Consistency
• 11:50 – Why Web Components Make Dev Easier
• 17:06 – Tooling Made Better by Web Standards
• 25:46 – Embracing Modern Tech in UI/UX
• 30:17 – Building Free, High-Quality Software
• 31:25 – Power of Open Source Collaboration
• 36:04 – The Humble Beginnings: PHP and Web Dev

🧠 Highlights

🔗 Links & Credits

• Explore Shoelace
  🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
  🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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🛸 Dungeons, Dragons, and the Oregon Trail… in Space?!

On this episode of Nerd Show and Tell, we beam up with Ed Emanuel, Senior Developer at Font Awesome, to chat about his lifelong nerdery, dev adventures, and a galactically nostalgic side project called Space Awesome — a text-based, icon-powered space game inspired by the Oregon Trail.

Ed shares how creating Space Awesome helped him learn Vue.js, how he mashed up 8-bit style game logic with Font Awesome’s space-themed icons, and why it’s a quick, secret-filled trip through the stars (no microtransactions, we promise).

We also talk 3D printing, Dungeons & Dragons, and the magic behind Icon Wizard, the tool Ed and fellow FA-er Mike Wilkerson built to help customize icons on the fly.

If you love dev rabbit holes, retro gaming, or rolling D20s, this ep's got your name on it.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 02:27 – Working with Dave and Travis at Font Awesome
• 04:07 – Creating Custom Icons with Font Awesome Pro
• 06:34 – 3D Printing and D&D Miniatures
• 10:31 – Exploring Icon Themes and Ed’s Faves
• 12:11 – Launching the Space Awesome Game
• 14:02 – Text-Based Games and Blockbuster Nostalgia
• 16:20 – Ed’s Dungeons & Dragons Origin Story
• 19:21 – The Rise of D&D and Role-Playing Games
• 21:51 – What Makes a Great Dungeon Master?

🧠 Highlights

🔗 Links & Credits

• Play Space Awesome
• Check out Icon Wizard
  🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
  🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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Highlights

Well, I think I can thank my brother in law for that one as well. When he started dating my sister, my older sister, they played DND and kind of introduced me and my other siblings to it. So I played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons back in the late eighty s a little bit. And then we didn't have any of the books. So we kind of homebrewed our own game for a while, just like everyone else. We kind of stepped away from it for a while and then, let's see, it's been five or six years ago actually.

It went well. We had lots of traffic the first couple of weeks. Not as much since then, but when I designed the game, I wanted to kind of respect people's time. It does not require a huge investment in your time. You can sit down and play it for five to ten minutes, and while there are a lot of secrets to discover and things that you probably won't encounter your first time through. There's no timers. There's no anything that requires that you come back and play it every day.

We have a 20 sided dice that belongs in there. We have some swords, axe, the wizards hats. We have a bunch of icons, the cloak, the skull, stuff like that. I think there's definitely a few icons we could add. Some more DnD themed things. Oh, we have a dragon icon already, but I think there's some other monsters that would be cool to add some kind of slime or gelatinous cube or a beholder, but I suppose we couldn't call it a beholder.
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💥 How Font Awesome’s Kickstarter Became a Record-Breaking Success

What happens when a tiny team with an awesome idea turns to crowdfunding? You get the most-backed tech Kickstarter of all time. In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt and the Font Awesome team take you behind the scenes of their  2017 Kickstarter campaign for Font Awesome 5.

Hear how a failed campaign turned into a historic win, how a bakery became the perfect metaphor for icon design, and how humor (plus a 12-hour filming session) helped their story resonate with backers worldwide. Oh, and how it caught the attention of Y Combinator, too.

🚀 In this episode, we explore:

• How humor and storytelling powered a viral Kickstarter video
• Lessons learned from a past campaign misfire (RIP Font Awesome Black Tie)
• Why we set a modest goal — and obliterated it
• Behind-the-scenes of choosing a video partner (Knox Avenue FTW)
• The unexpected doors Y Combinator opened up for Font Awesome

If you're a designer, founder, or just love a good origin story, this episode is packed with laughs, lessons, and bakery metaphors you won’t forget.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:09 – Reflecting on the Success of Font Awesome's 2017 Kickstarter
• 02:14 – Was Y Combinator Worth It?
• 05:32 – Lessons Learned from the Crowdfunding Campaign
• 07:30 – Finding the Right Video Production Partner
• 09:03 – Why the Kickstarter Video Was a Huge Risk
• 13:10 – The 12-Hour Shoot That Made It Work
• 14:58 – The Campaign That Changed Everything

🔗 Links & Credits

 🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

• Font Awesome 5 Kickstarter Video 
• How Font Awesome became the most funded software project on Kickstarter  — and what we can learn from it 

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HIGHLIGHTS 

We have no idea how this is going to hit. But we think this is hysterical. We thought it was funny, so we launched the video. We did a few things right with it. We did a lot of things right. And we still got an article out there somewhere about all of the we think are good ways to run a Kickstarter. And it's a few years old, but most of it's going to be evergreen with that. And we set a goal for ourselves for $30,000.

If Brian hasn't shared his nerd about baking, that would yeah, we should do that. The parallel we come up with [for the video] is a bakery. Because a bakery is we think of Font Awesome as this intersection of art and technology. We think of it as how do we make these Awesome assets. You get your icons. How do you make these real? How do you get these where they need to be in the way people want to use them so that everything can be better? 

As a company, we like humor. This is actually a core piece of who the company has become. Is that we value this so much, and so we're like, okay, so humor seems a clear way that we can try to make this more interesting. But also, what if we have nothing overtly digital in this? What if we tell this in the real world? What if we tell the story of Font Awesome 5, what we want to build? What if we tell this story in the real world? And so what's the biggest parallel, right?
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🛡️ Sword Fights, Security & Memes: Meet Alex “Yellow Dart” Poiry

In this wonderfully offbeat episode of Nerd Show and Tell,  Matt chats with Alex Poiry, Head of Security at Font Awesome. But don't let the job title fool you — this isn’t just firewalls and protocols.

Alex dives into how a background in history and German led him to a career in tech, how a classic Homestar Runner video gave him the nickname “Yellow Dart,” and how swinging a longsword in VR gave him tennis elbow.

Yep. It's that kind of episode.

🧠 In this episode, we explore:

• The role of a Head of Security at a globally used icon toolkit
• How analog circuit metaphors help explain digital concepts
• Why early 2000s memes still live rent-free in Alex’s brain
• Nerdy passions: from Klingon to Tolkien to longsword combat in virtual reality
• How storytelling shapes tech, marketing, and public trust

If you love cybersecurity, weird tech journeys, or just want to hear a security lead talk about Klingon, this one’s for you.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:08 – Meet Alex Poiry: Font Awesome’s Head of Security
• 03:44 – From liberal arts to lock-downs: how Alex got into tech
• 07:56 – What “security” actually means at Font Awesome
• 12:30 – Data privacy, metaphors, and teaching tech
• 18:42 – Klingon, Lord of the Rings, and meme nostalgia
• 23:26 – Geek Squad war stories & unexpected repairs
• 27:25 – HEMA swordplay and VR: a nerdery crossover
• 33:22 – How storytelling influences PR, security, and connection

🔗 Links & Credits

• Font Awesome Security Info
• Homestar Runner – Yellow Dart
   🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
  🎶 Music segues by Zach Malm
  🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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HIGHLIGHTS

"At what point in time when you get to a certain age, how do you tell if it's you getting old or if some things actually are worse? Because there's a definitive period in American cinema that's not as good as some of the other periods.  There's a fantastic storytelling section of American cinema that starts in the 1970s and kind of goes into the it goes into the then you start to hit that era of the blockbuster.

The MCU is great. It's fun, and it's nice to see all this expansive stuff. But I wonder, are we going to look down the line in, like, 30 or 40 years and we're going to be like, these movies were fantastic storytelling, or if it's just going to just kind of be, like, fluffy." 

"What is your form like when it comes to historic European martial arts? And then you could do like a super hot thing where you just put a character up in front of it and just like whack him with a sword and he breaks and falls down or he blocks and you can try that stuff. So then you can actually work on your form without getting sword elbow."
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NOTES

• Spintronics
• The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger (original narration by Randall) 
• G.I. Joe PSAs 

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☕ Poo Storms, Pixels & Perfect Curves: Designing Font Awesome 6 with Jory Raphael

In this iconic episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt is joined by Font Awesome’s Senior Icon Designer Jory Raphael and Co-founder Travis Chase to explore what made Font Awesome 6 not just a major update — but a major upgrade.

From adopting Figma as a design tool to refining styles across the entire icon set, Jory shares how a more cohesive design system (and a few poop jokes) helped shape the boldest, nerdiest, most delightful version of Font Awesome yet.

🎨 In this episode, we cover:

• How Font Awesome 6 broke from v5 with smarter, more consistent icon design
• Jory’s favorite (and weirdest) icons from the new sets
• The journey from Freelance Icon Jealousy™️ to hiring Noah Jacobus
• Collaborating with the United Nations on meaningful icons for humanitarian work
• Why the “Poo Storm” icon exists… and what that says about Font Awesome’s design culture

If you're a designer, icon enthusiast, or curious nerd who loves the blend of polish and playfulness, this one’s a must-listen.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:10 – Font Awesome 6: A new chapter in icon design
• 02:30 – Rebuilding icons with rules, rhythm, and range
• 04:01 – Designing with purpose across branding + UI
• 06:30 – How to keep icon design fun (and sharp)
• 13:39 – Meet Noah Jacobus: icon wizard, now full-time at FA
• 14:36 – Jory & Travis share their favorite weird and wonderful icons

🔗 Links & Credits

• Explore Font Awesome 6
• Why We Switched to Figma
• Font Awesome x UN OCHA: Humanitarian Icons
• Meet Noah Jacobus on Nerd Show and Tell
   🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
  🎶 Music by Zach Malm
  🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions
• Font Awesome 6 Is Live! See the New Icons, Styles and Upgrade Without the Hassle
• 10 Reasons We Switched to Figma For Icon Design
• Font Awesome and OCHA Partner to Create Humanitarian Icons
• Nerd Show and Tell: Meet Noah Jacobus, Icon Designer Extraordinaire

Highlights
 
"..Noah Jacobus is one of those icon designers who his work just constantly has made me jealous. He posts things that I wish I had designed and his skill and detail and creativity I find amazing. We actually got him to work a little bit on some contract work for us a little while ago as kind of sneakily, get him excited working with us at Font. Awesome. He finally popped the question and he is here working with us. And I'm so excited because I'm excited because he's a better icon designer than I am. And so that means that our stuff is just going to get better, and it also means that I can focus on some other things as well at Font awesome."

"... Part of the core of Font Awesome is to have fun with things. It makes it so much more interesting to include an icon like the Poo storm icon. That was a joke. I was designing a set of weather icons and a cloud icon has some very similar curves to an icon of Poop. And I was designing a cloud icon and it had a little lightning bolt. And so I just took the Poop icon and added a lightning bolt and it's resonated with a lot more people than I thought it would."

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