Podcast Awesome

Look Awesome: Solving Color Once and for All
Locking in the color palette for your project is one of those things that seems simple until you're actually doing it. Pick the wrong shade and your text is unreadable. Pick the right shade and it only works in Figma, not in your codebase, not in Tailwind, not anywhere that matters.
Dave Gandy — Font Awesome founder, Kickstarter legend, self-described Nantucket color enthusiast — has been quietly building a tool to fix this mess. It's called Look Awesome, and it tackles color from three angles at once: the technical side (WCAG contrast math), the artistic side (palettes that actually look good), and yes, the genetic side (turns out not everyone sees color the same way, and there's a 100-dot test to prove it).
This episode is an audio cut of a live demo Dave gave during the Build Awesome Kickstarter stream. He walks through how Look Awesome works, why he built it in under three weeks using modern AI tooling, and why he thinks this might be the most fun thing he's ever made. You'll also hear about NASA's brand guidelines, the color laws of Nantucket, and a binary search algorithm that finds the exact one shade of blue that satisfies both dark and light text contrast requirements.
Fair warning: this is a color tool, so if you want to actually see the thing, head over to the YouTube channel. The link is in the show notes.
What We Cover
What Look Awesome is and why it exists
The three challenges of color: technical, artistic, and genetic
The Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test and what it means for working with color
How the palette-building math actually works (including that binary search)
Theming once and getting it everywhere — Tailwind, Web Awesome, Claude's design.md, wherever
How Look Awesome fits into the Build Awesome workflow
Why Dave built this in under three weeks and what AI-assisted Build Week looked like
The Nantucket color palette demo (10 seconds, one URL)
Try It Look Awesome is live now at look.awesome.me. Dave wants to hear what's working — not just the bugs. Drop him a note at [email protected].
Want to support the broader project? The Build Awesome Kickstarter is still running at build.awesome.me.

Watch the full demo from the livestream! youtube.com/live/XBMSvupE7Bc?si=3Ow2B1I4pOAYnsb 
Credits
Hosted, produced and edited by Matt Johnson
Featuring Dave Gandy and Zach (from the Build Awesome livestream)
Theme song by Ronnie Martin
Music interstitials by Zach Malm
Video editing by Isaac Chase
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AI makes it easier to build almost anything. So why does that make the job harder?
In this episode, Matt sits down with Font Awesome founder Dave Gandy and engineer Travis Chase to get past the hype and into the real day-to-day of building with AI. The conversation covers what's actually changing on the team, where AI falls short, and what human skills matter more now than they did before.
If you're a designer, developer, or anyone trying to figure out where you fit in a world where your output can suddenly go 10x — this one's worth your time. Dave and Travis don't pretend the answers are simple. They also don't pretend the concerns aren't real.
Fair warning: Dave also makes a case for revisiting waterfall development. It's more convincing than it has any right to be.

What We Cover
Why producing more means your quality bar has to get sharper, not looser
The discernment problem — when you can build anything, how do you decide what's worth building?
Why saying no is now a more important skill than ever
The strongest AI concerns Dave and Travis actually take seriously (energy, training data ethics, governance)
Why AI seems to help people become more of who they already are
How to stay curious and useful during a major technology transition without chasing every squirrel

Timestamps
0:00 Cold open — from low-level to strategy
0:38 Intro
1:30 Where AI falls short right now
2:00 Quality control when output explodes
2:30 Taste, responsibility, and Jory's point at the snuggle
3:00 The discernment problem and snacktivities
4:20 Simplicity means saying no more than yes
5:30 Chasing waterfalls — does waterfall development make a comeback?
6:00 The strongest anti-AI arguments worth taking seriously
6:45 Energy, ethics, and training data consent
8:00 Technology's evolution and the genie that's out of the bottle
9:00 The Industrial Revolution farmer analogy
9:45 Superheroes, supervillains, and hiring for character first
10:20 Two ditches: navigating between idealism and cynicism
11:10 Rev share and what the world should look like
11:45 Governance, compromise, and garbage design
13:30 Washing machines and making more clean water
14:00 Guiding principles for using AI internally
15:00 Company behaviors as an AI framework: curious, humble, adventurous
16:00 AI helps people become more of who they are
16:45 AI will ask people to operate at a higher level
18:00 Refusing to engage is the riskiest move of all
19:00 We need critical voices — and we need them in the room
20:00 Echo chambers, bad data, and the water story
21:30 The world is hopeful — spend your life in wonder
22:30 Home prices, colonizing planets, and the leap to the real world
23:00 Outro

Credits
Hosted by Matt Johnson
Featuring Dave Gandy and Travis Chase
Produced and edited by Matt Johnson
Theme song by Ronnie Martin
Music interstitials by Zach Malm
Video editing by Isaac Chase
🔗 Font Awesome: https://fontawesome.com 
🔗 Check out episode one of the conversation! https://www.podcastawesome.com/2092855/episodes/19065993-build-week-what-we-made-part-1-with-dave-travis
🔗 Podcast Awesome: https://podcastawesome.com
#PodcastAwesome #FontAwesome #AI #DesignAndDevelopment #TechEthics #SoftwareDevelopment
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💻 AI side quests, but make it Snuggle. 🤖✨

In this episode, we’re fresh off the Snuggle (our company retreat) and talking about what happens when you give a curious team some time, space… and a bunch of AI tools. Travis and Dave join us to share how experimenting with tools like G-Stack, Spec-Kit, and Claude helped us explore ideas, prototype faster, and take on projects we normally wouldn’t have time for.

We get into the practical side of it all—what worked, what didn’t, and where AI actually fits into a creative workflow (without the hype). It’s part experiment recap, part philosophy, and part “what if we just tried it?”

Whether you're building products, designing systems, or just curious how AI can fit into your process, this one’s for you.

🎙️ What we cover in this episode:
🧑‍🚀 Why we dedicated Snuggle time to AI exploration
🧩 How tools like G-Stack, Spec-Kit, and Claude fit into real workflows
💻 Using AI to prototype and pressure-test ideas quickly
⚖️ The balance between human creativity and machine assistance
🧠 What surprised us (and what didn’t)

⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00:00 – Welcome & Intro
00:01:59 – What are Snacktivites?
00:02:57 – Company Behaviors Framework
00:04:16 – Build Week Explained
00:05:00 – Travis's Thoughts on AI Shift
00:08:05 – Ethics Over Slop
00:08:31 – Education and Intent
00:11:47 – Using AI as a Force Multiplier
00:14:50 – Skills Files and Standards
00:21:10 – Tooling Roundup: G-Stack, Spec-Kit, and more
00:25:46 – Color Awesome Finale
00:27:45 – Wrap Up ... To Be Continued in Part 2

🔗 Links & resources:
Font Awesome: https://fontawesome.com/
Browse icons: https://fontawesome.com/icons
Kits: https://fontawesome.com/kits
Web Awesome: https://webawesome.com/

Credits:
🎵 Theme music by Ronnie Martin
🎶 Interstitials by Zach Malm
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Job interviews aren’t just about proving you’re a fit — they’re about figuring out whether the company deserves you, too. 👀

In this episode, Matt chats with Font Awesome founder Dave Gandy about why hiring is a two-way street. They unpack the red flags candidates should watch for, what healthy companies actually look like, and how the interview process can reveal way more than a polished mission statement ever will.

Dave shares practical advice for job seekers on asking better questions, spotting dysfunctional hiring practices, and approaching the search with intention instead of desperation. They also dig into trust, team health, and why the best workplaces tend to value character just as much as capability.

Whether you’re job hunting, hiring, or just trying to avoid ending up in a workplace that feels like a corporate escape room, this episode has plenty to chew on. 😅

What we cover:
Why hiring should be a two-way evaluation
The biggest red flags in interview processes
What healthy organizations prioritize
Why trust matters more than pure talent
How to ask smarter interview questions
Why job seekers need a strategy, not just a stack of resumes
How to identify companies that are actually worth your time

Timestamps:
00:00 – Why hiring is a two-way street
02:00 – HR screenings, weird assessments, and early red flags
05:10 – Desperation in job hunting and why standards still matter
07:00 – What healthy companies really look like
09:20 – How to flip the script and interview the company
12:00 – Big companies, bad filters, and missing great candidates
16:00 – Why knowing yourself matters before you start looking
19:00 – Why spray-and-pray applications usually fall flat
21:00 – The value of being “double T-shaped” in your career
24:00 – Why the best opportunities often come through side doors
25:00 – Building relationships before you need a job
27:00 – How companies communicate values in the hiring process
29:00 – The one thing a company needs to do differently
30:00 – Wrap-up and outro

Credits:
Hosted by Matt Johnson
Featuring Dave Gandy
Produced and edited by Matt Johnson
Theme song by Ronnie Martin
Music interstitials by Zach Malm
Video editing by Isaac Chase
Watch this episode on YouTube

#Hiring #InterviewTips #JobSearch #CareerAdvice #Leadership #CompanyCulture #WorkplaceCulture #TechCareers #PodcastAwesome #FontAwesome 🚀
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In this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt sits down with Ed and Francis to talk through three newly shipped Font Awesome features that are small, practical, and just the right amount of fun. They dig into individual PNG downloads, a new global color picker for previewing icons in brand colors, and the wonderfully playful User Blender, which lets you mix and match heads, bodies, and styles to create custom user icons for your kit.
Along the way, they unpack the thinking behind each feature, how these updates connect to Icon Wizard and the broader Font Awesome 7.2 release, and why shaving off a few annoying workflow steps can make life noticeably better for designers and developers. There’s also an unexpected side quest into Ed’s cameo in his son’s YouTube channel, because apparently every product update deserves a B-plot. 🎬
If you want to actually see these features in action, there’s also an extended video version on YouTube with demos. But this audio-only episode still gives you the full behind-the-scenes story, the practical use cases, and all the delightful nerdery you’d expect from the Awesomeverse.
What We Cover in This Episode
🎨 How the new global color picker makes previewing icon colors much easier
🖼️ Why individual PNG downloads are a handy addition for quick icon grabs
🧑‍🚀 How User Blender lets you create custom user icons with random and manual combinations
🧩 How these features build on ideas from Icon Wizard
💻 Why small workflow improvements can have a big impact for teams
🧪 How playful side projects sometimes turn into genuinely useful features
🎬 Ed’s surprise side quest into low-budget cinematic glory
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Podcast Awesome
 00:20 Introducing the episode and today’s guests
 00:45 The three new features: PNG downloads, color picker, and User Blender
 01:10 Francis makes a Podcast Awesome debut
 01:40 Looking back at Ed’s previous appearances and Icon Wizard history
 02:10 Why individual PNG downloads were added
 03:00 When and why someone might want PNG instead of SVG
 04:10 The idea behind the new global color picker
 05:00 Previewing brand colors across icon search results
 05:40 Using the color picker on category pages and kits
 06:10 Duotone controls, secondary colors, opacity, reset, and swatches
 07:10 Reusing Web Awesome tools inside Font Awesome
 07:50 How color settings carry over across different areas
 08:20 How the color picker affects code snippets and icon styling
 08:55 Meet User Blender
 09:20 How randomizing and mixing custom user icons works
 10:00 Available styles and future expansion plans
 10:40 Why User Blender is both useful and toy-like in the best possible way
 11:15 How the feature grew out of a snuggle and Icon Wizard success
 12:00 A call for community creations and creative icon mashups
 12:40 How these features fit into the Font Awesome 7.2 release
 13:10 Ed’s unexpected acting career and his son’s YouTube side quest
 14:00 Wrap-up and where to share your creations

YouTube episode with visual examples: https://youtu.be/NDsqZozkn3A 
Font Awesome: https://fontawesome.com/
Browse Font Awesome Icons: https://fontawesome.com/icons
Learn about Kits: https://fontawesome.com/kits
Explore Web Awesome: https://webawesome.com/
Contact the team: [email protected]
Theme music by Ronnie Martin: https://ronniemartin.org/
Interstitial music by Zach Malm: https://muzach.bandcamp.com/
BowziTV: https://www.youtube.com/@BowziTV
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