In this episode, Matt and Jory sit down with UK-based icon designer + illustrator Vic Bell to talk about the brand-new Font Awesome icon pack, Graphite — a loose, hand-drawn set that brings texture, depth, and a whole lot of human personality to iconography.

If you’ve ever tried to balance clarity vs. creativity, or wondered how icons can feel more like typefaces with different “voices”, this one’s for you. 🎧

🗒️ What We Cover in This Episode

👋 How Vic and Jory connected
✏️ Designing Font Awesome Pro Plus packs and how “Small Batch” became a thing
🧠 Vic’s creative journey: trends, taste, and identity
🏠 Why icons are storytelling at micro-scale
⚖️ The tension between clarity and creativity
🧰 Illustrator vs. Figma for icon design
📲 Custom brushes and iPad sidecar workflows

🕒 Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction and Welcome
0:46 - How Vic and Jory Connected
2:48 - Font Awesome Icon Packs Overview
5:42 - Vic's Creative Journey and Evolution
7:45 - The Hand-Drawn "Graphite" Icon Style
10:17 - Reflections on Icon Design as a Career
13:41 - Childhood Influences and the Magic of Small Things
17:18 - Creative Process and Personalization
22:19 - Trusting the Creative Process
23:32 - Project Validation and Creative Freedom
25:15 - Technical Challenges and Implementation
26:23 - Future of Font Awesome Icon Packs
30:52 - Illustrator vs. Figma for Icon Design
31:28 - Creating Custom Brushes and Using iPad
38:38 - Balancing Clarity and Creativity in Icon Design
47:37 - Releasing Icon Packs and Delayed Gratification

🔗 Links & Resources

Vic Bell: / vic_bell
Font Awesome: https://fontawesome.com/
Web Awesome: https://webawesome.com/
Theme music by Ronnie Martin
Interstitial music by Zach Malm

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Eleventy started as a side project. Now it’s a critical infrastructure for thousands of websites.

TL;DR: Open source isn’t broken. But the way we fund it often is. Let’s talk about what actually works.

In this episode, we sit down with Zach Leatherman, creator of Eleventy (11ty), to talk honestly about what happens after open source succeeds. From nap-time coding and nights-and-weekends maintenance to venture capital pressure, burnout risk, and the reality of funding long-lived developer tools, this conversation digs into the cultural and financial tradeoffs behind modern open source.

We cover sustainability, community expectations, funding models that don’t rely on hockey-stick growth, and why “free forever” only works if the people behind the project can stay whole humans.

🎙️ What We Cover in This Episode

• 🧠 How Eleventy grew from a side project into a widely depended-on tool
• ⚖️ The maintainer’s dilemma: growth, responsibility, and personal sustainability
• 💸 Why venture capital and hockey-stick growth often fail dev tools
• 🔥 Burnout, boundaries, and being accountable to a global user base
• 🏡 Balancing family life with open source maintenance
• 🔁 Different funding models: donations, sponsorships, Pro tools, and tradeoffs
• 🌱 What sustainable open source can look like long-term
• 🔮 What’s ahead for Eleventy and its next chapter

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Introductions and why open source sustainability matters
01:47 – Eleventy’s early days and unexpected adoption
04:32 – When a “side project” becomes critical infrastructure
06:42 – Corporate usage, expectations, and hidden pressure
10:08 – Family life, burnout risk, and personal boundaries
14:17 – Funding models: donations vs. sustainability
18:45 – Venture capital, acquisitions, and hockey-stick growth myths
23:33 – Lessons from Gatsby, Astro, and the dev tools ecosystem
26:25 – Why sustainable open source must tie to real value
30:26 – A healthier path forward for maintainers and communities
33:20 – What’s next for Eleventy

🔗 Links & Resources

• Eleventy (11ty)
• Font Awesome
• Web Awesome

🎵 Theme music by Ronnie Martin
🎹 Interstitial music by Zach Malm
🎥 Video support by Isaac Chase

Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

Happy New Year from the Awesomeverse! In this episode, Matt and Jory kick off 2026 by recapping all the wild, weird, and wonderful things that happened across Font Awesome and Web Awesome in 2025. From the launch of FA7 and small-batch icon packs to a possum puppet mascot (yes, really), they reflect on the big (and small batch) wins, behind-the-scenes hilarity, and creative experiments that made the year unforgettable. Oh, and if you're wondering what it's like to direct a hot dog-eating scene at a Kickstarter video shoot? We’ve got that covered too.

TL;DR: New icons, big upgrades, hilarious videos, brainy guests, possum puppets, and one heck of a year.

🧠 What We Cover in This Episode

• 🎉 Reflecting on FA7 upgrades
• 🧪 The rise of Pro Plus and its small batch icon packs (Etch! Jelly! Not Dog!)
• 🎥 Behind-the-scenes on the F.A.C.U. cinematic universe and the FA7 shoot (hot dog suit included)
• 🧩 How the newsletter icon puzzle took on a life of its own
• 🧰 The official Web Awesome launch and what’s next
• 🧠 Brainy takes on icon cognition from Dr. Brian Glenny
• 🐾 The birth of Awesome Possum, our unofficial but fully fabulous mascot
• 📦 Teasers for what’s coming in 2026: More icons, more components, and more fun

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Post-holiday haze & back in the podcast saddle
02:00 – FA7 highlights: Pro Plus packs + icon design overhaul
04:30 – Icon Pack breakdown: Etch, Jelly, Not Dog, and beyond
06:00 – Behind-the-scenes filming stories from the FA7 Kickstarter video
10:00 – Web Awesome officially launches!
12:30 – How the Awesome Possum was born
16:00 – The rise of the icon puzzle & newsletter hijinks
24:00 – Standout guests from the past season + the philosophy of icon design
28:00 – Accessibility icons, graffiti activism, and symbol cognition
30:00 – What’s coming in 2026: New icon packs, new components, and new surprises
32:00 – The Awesome Possum signs us off (kinda)

🔗 Links & Resources

• Check out the FA7 Launch Video
• Learn more about Pro Plus
• Build with Web Awesome
• Subscribe to our Newsletter (get the puzzle!)
• Jory’s Puzzle Book: “Goes Without Saying”
• Behind-the-scenes of the FA7 Shoot
• The Accessibility Icon Project

🎵 Theme music by Ronnie Martin
🎹 Interstitial music by Zach Malm
🎥 Video support by Isaac Chase

Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!