🧑‍💻 Reuniting Remote Teams with Heart, Humor, and Cookies: Inside Font Awesome’s Biannual Snuggle

In this wholesome (and slightly nerdy) episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson is joined by Font Awesome co-founders and longtime team members — Dave Gandy, Travis Chase, Rob Madole, and Mike Wilkerson — to share the origin story and magic behind The Snuggle, Font Awesome’s biannual in-person team meetup.

Why does a fully remote company with async workflows and nerdy Slack threads still prioritize gathering face-to-face? Turns out, good software starts with great relationships — and a well-timed inside joke.

🧵 In this episode, we explore:

• How humor shaped the name “Snuggle” — and why the team leaned into it
• Real stories about what in-person time means for trust, collaboration, and morale
• How remote work challenges like isolation and “missing the water cooler” are countered with deliberate bonding
• What cookies, karaoke, and late-night debates reveal about team dynamics
• Why investing in remote-first culture isn’t just smart—it’s essential

If you’re building or working on a remote team, this one’s your cozy, cookie-filled blueprint for staying connected (no matter how async your GitHub repo is).

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:09 – The Snuggle: what it is and why it matters
• 02:31 – Rob Madole on remote work trade-offs
• 05:23 – Humor + connection: the glue for team culture
• 08:00 – Why in-person bonding is worth it
• 11:50 – Reuniting post-COVID
• 13:36 – Chocolate chip cookies and late-night hangouts
• 15:15 – Replacing the water cooler
• 16:52 – Remote vs. in-office productivity at Font Awesome

🔗 Links & Credits

🎯 Learn about Font Awesome’s culture
 🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
🎶 Music segues by Zach Malm
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

Remote Work: How We Snuggle Our Way to a Healthy Company Culture

Meet the Font Awesome Team Through Our Nerd Show and Tell 

Highlights

“So clearly, the Snuggle is about as serious as its name, and yet the effect is that it helps build goodwill and trust among the Font Awesome team so we can work together better. While the remote work versus in office work debate will likely continue, Font Awesome has found a way to make the best of both worlds. And once you start working remote, you may never want to go back to the office again.”

“ So people come in on Sunday. So Sunday is a travel day, and then they fly back out on Friday. That's a travel day. So we've got four days in the middle there for the actual Snuggle. Two of the nights we have where we expect everybody to be there hanging out two of the nights, and we've got two nights that are in some ways, kind of like recovery nights.”

“We make up for a lot of the water cooler stuff that we miss. We make up for those shared experiences on a daily basis. We try to make up for that a lot of that here and compare it. I'm so excited that we got together, that we got to get together right now.”

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🎧 Exploring Sharp Icons, Retro Gaming & Design Rhythms with Noah Jacobus

In the inaugural episode of Nerd Show and Tell, Matt Johnson chats with Font Awesome icon designer Noah Jacobus about the creative crossover between music, icon design, and visual rhythm.

Noah shares how his background in music education unexpectedly shaped his approach to visual design, leading to his work designing the Font Awesome Sharp icon family — a bold reimagining of one of the web’s most iconic tools.

They dive into:

• The design philosophy behind the Sharp icon aesthetic
• How musical hierarchy and rhythm translate to scalable iconography
• The behind-the-scenes grind of crafting over 20,000 icons
• Noah’s obsession with retro handheld games (looking at you, Playdate 👾)
• Why design and game nostalgia often go hand-in-hand

Whether you're into SVG design, retro game consoles, or just love seeing how seemingly unrelated disciplines collide — this one’s for you.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

• 00:08 – Designing the Font Awesome Sharp family
• 02:59 – Music meets visual arts
• 04:30 – Rhythm, hierarchy & design language
• 10:07 – Joining the Font Awesome team
• 12:32 – Sharp icon design challenges
• 16:56 – Handheld retro gaming love
• 19:47 – Pixel art, nostalgia, and iconography

🔗 Links & Credits

🎯 Add a Touch of Class with Font Awesome Sharp Icons
🎙️ Meet Noah Jacobus, Icon Designer Extraordinaire
🕹️ Playdate – retro-style handheld game
🎵 Theme by Ronnie Martin
🎶 Music segues by Zach Malm
🎸 Outro track “Man is He Mega - GLBML” by Geoffrey Burch
🎛️ Audio mastering by Chris Enns at Lemon Productions

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Highlights

"It can only do some specific things very well. And so there's some very creative solutions for how to make interesting games for that. That's the same kind of thing that interests me a lot about iconography in that way is that emphasis on working within constraints. And I think that's kind of what drew me to retro gaming and kind of the resurrection of it as well and kind of the preservation of it, too, is like a kind of focus on that, working with what they had and really making cool stuff."

"... The Playdate by Panic has been really cool to see in development and I was finally able to get one earlier this year. And kind of the emphasis that goes into especially when you're creating a new handheld like this. It's kind of inspired by the Game Boy and a lot of old things and kind of choosing which design constraints you want to embrace to kind of set it apart because the playdate is kind of a weird form factor and it has a black and white screen that doesn't have a backlight and it's got some very unique inputs on it. It has some of the stuff you might expect with buttons and stuff, but it also has an accelerometer in it and it has a crank on the side of it and other things like that that are really interesting of like these are some new innovative things. But there's still cool ways to foster creativity because it's not a little wonder handheld that can do everything."

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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 

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In early 2023, the makers of Font Awesome are launching a brand new podcast unsurprisingly called — wait for it — Podcast Awesome! 

In this podcast, we’ll be talking about icons, naturally. We’ll talk about how we think building healthy and sustainable workplaces is possible. We’ll also dive deep into the tech of how we build things. And, of course, we’ll nerd out along the way. 

I’m your host, Matt Johnson, and on Podcast Awesome, we’ll be talking about icons, design, tech, business, nerdery, and more with the members of the Font Awesome team. 

Subscribe to Podcast Awesome wherever you get your podcasts. 

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