Font Awesome's Icon Wizard just got a serious upgrade, and it's now powerful enough to make genuinely great icons (or, per Mike's own admission, genuinely terrible ones, if that's more your speed).
In this episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson sits down with Mike, Ed, and Jory (a rare full-team appearance) to talk about the launch of Icon Wizard 2.0. But it's not just a new coat of paint. You can now mix and match icons across styles, layer up to 20 elements at once with full control over size and position, build custom "user" characters by blending heads and bodies, and for the first time run Power Transforms in web fonts, not just SVG.
The crew traces the whole story: how the original Wizard grew out of an internal project once nicknamed F.A.R.Ts (Font Awesome Reusable Tidbits and Shapes, obviously), why this version was almost called the "Icon Genie," and how a customer's offhand feature request turned into a real, shippable icon built live in the tool.
There's also a real-time demo (a thumbs-up icon that grows a seedling), a debate over the correct number of poop-icon swirls, and a very serious 1-to-10 disappointment scale about the road not taken with "Icon F.A.R.Ts." The team is also running an Icon Wizard Contest through September 7, so if you want your creation featured in the gallery, this is your excuse to go play.
What We Cover
- What's actually new in Icon Wizard 2.0: mixing icon styles, layering up to 20 elements, add/subtract/stroke operations, and letters and numbers you can punch out of badges
- How Power Transforms — previously an SVG-only capability — now work in web fonts too, and the auto-generated cutouts that made it possible
- The origin story: F.A.R.Ts, the original modifier-only Wizard, and "Snuggles," the team's space for proof-of-concept projects
- Why the team loosened creative control in version 2, and what that trade-off means for good icons (and bad ones)
- Real community creations from the gallery, including a Starry Night icon, a centaur, a potted cactus, and a live green-thumb demo
- The near-miss name "Icon Genie" and how the team landed back on "Wizard"
- How to enter the Icon Wizard Contest (running through September 7) and where to send feedback during the beta
Timestamps
00:00 — Cold open: bad icons, good icons, and Jory's grim optimism
00:01 — Welcome to the show and episode overview
00:02 — The Icon Wizard Contest, explained
00:04 — Community favorites: Starry Night, the user blender, and more
00:05 — Where this all started: FARTs and the original pitch
00:07 — "Snuggles," the team's space for proof-of-concept projects
00:08 — The real origin story: bringing Power Transforms to web fonts
00:10 — What "gooder" actually means in Icon Wizard 2.0
00:12 — Ed breaks down what's new: mixing styles, 20 layers, and more 00:14 — The real pain point Icon Wizard solves
00:17 — Why the Starry Night icon is a different kind of creation
00:18 — It's basically a full design tool now
00:20 — A customer feature request, solved live with the Wizard 00:21 — How v2 actually started: automating the cutouts
00:23 — Live demo: building a green thumb icon in real time
00:26 — Wizard walkthrough: the four tabs (icons, modifiers, elements, user) 00:28 — Add, subtract, stroke: how the Boolean operations work
00:31 — Where to send feedback, and how the gallery and sharing work
00:33 — Speed round: favorite modifiers
00:34 — The secret difference between the poop icon and the poop modifier 00:35 — The "Icon FARTs" disappointment scale
00:37 — Almost-names: Icon Genie, Icon Deity, and (sadly, no) Icon Gandalf
00:40 — Icon Wizard earns its spot in the main nav
00:41 — Wrap-up and Mike's sign-off
Credits
- Hosted by Matt Johnson
- Featuring Mike, Ed, and Jory
- Produced and edited by Matt Johnson
- Theme song by Ronnie Martin
- Music interstitials by Zach Malm
- Video editing by Isaac Chase
Links
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