What do a scene from Silicon Valley, a typeface shaped like sausages, and a bottle of mustard have in common? They're all part of the origin story of Notdog, one of Font Awesome's small-batch Pro+ icon packs. It's glossy, it's gooey, and it is very much not a hot dog.

On this episode of Podcast Awesome, Matt sits down with Font Awesome designers Noah Jacobus and Jory Raphael to talk about how a challenge from Dave Gandy ("can we make an icon pack that looks like this?") turned into one of the first proofs that Pro+ packs could work at all. Noah explains why one simple rule about shine shaped every icon in the set, why his early emoji faces looked like dino nuggets, and how a pack inspired by tubes ended up looking like condiments. Plus: the actor who plays Milton in the Font Awesome marketing videos eats a lot of hot dogs on set, and we settle nothing about which regional hot dog is best.

🗒️ What We Cover
😂 How a Silicon Valley gag and the Frankfurter typeface combined into Notdog
✨ Why every icon needed room for a highlight, and how that set the smallest possible shape
🌭 The shift from tube-shaped strokes to blobby, condiment-style forms
🧪 How Noah builds a test set of about 10 icons before committing to all 200
🎭 Why Pro+ packs trade some legibility for personality, like a headline typeface
😵 The faces that fought back, and why the Duotone style is the one to use
🎬 Notdog's starring role in the Font Awesome 7 video
🌭 Chicago dogs, Seattle dogs, and the legendary $1.50 Costco hot dog

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 — Not a hot dog
00:45 — Welcome to Podcast Awesome
01:00 — Jory lists his favorite hot dogs
02:00 — Why is it called Notdog?
03:45 — The Glyph book and the "could we even do this?" challenge
05:15 — Mood boards and sausage balloon animals
06:45 — From tubes to condiments
08:15 — The shine rule
09:00 — Building a brief: from 200 icons down to 10
11:15 — Core Font Awesome vs. Pro+ personality
13:45 — Where you'd actually use Notdog
16:15 — The easy icons and the dino nugget faces
19:00 — Why Duo is the Notdog to use
20:15 — Diner art, Milton, and hot dog consumption on set
24:15 — Notdog, Jelly, and Slab: the first Pro+ packs
27:15 — The best regional hot dog?
29:30 — The $1.50 Costco hot dog legend
32:00 — Wrap-up and credits

🔗 Links & Resources
Hosted by Matt Johnson
Featuring Jory & Noah
Produced and edited by Matt Johnson
Theme song by Ronnie Martin
Music interstitials by Zach Malm
Video editing by Isaac Chase

Explore the Notdog icon pack: [https://fontawesome.com/icons/packs/notdog]
More episodes of Podcast Awesome: [https://www.podcastawesome.com/]

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