Font Awesome - Black Tie (Kick Starter)

Welcome Dave!

It's great to hear from you, and it's very encouraging to hear that Font Awesome still has a future.

A lot of people here are essentially developers and Font Awesome really has been a fantastic resource for a lot of us. We have it in add-ons, styles, and even replacing the sprite sheet used in the rich text editor with all Font Awesome icons (one of my favourites at the moment):

upload_2014-6-23_20-22-45.webp


Do you have any plans for development licensing yet? So if I wanted to use Black Tie in my Xen Media Gallery add-on, would I be able to purchase a developer license that would allow me to redistribute BT with that project? Or would each of my customers require to purchase their own BT license?

If it's the latter, do you plan to make BT and FA backwards compatible? I assume there will be a lot of cross over between FA icons and BT, but would they be accessible using the same CSS selectors? The fa prefixes on the FA icons would likely make that complicated.

I'm really excited to see all of this develop. Thank you so much for Font Awesome and congratulations on hitting the first target for BT :)
 
Hey Dave,

Thanks for posting here! Would you be able to share some information on how any kind of commercial license will work for those who, for example make either software or themes/templates that get sold over and over?
 
Im curious how fonts (Icons) will be prioritized for creation going forward. I certainly understand the Kick Start as i can imagine the undertaking is quite impressive.. But of course as Font Awesome matures i wonder will Black Tie catch up? I assume so but in what type of timeframe?
 
@Chris D:
  1. I'd love to hear what you'd like to see in a redistribution license. I'd certainly consider something for a certain number of licenses at a discount that gets bigger as the number of licenses does.
  2. BT and FA should be able to be backward compatible, with a bit of tweaking. Right now with FA, you can change the prefix ('fa') easily. You'll be able to do the same thing with Black Tie.
  3. Watch in the next day or so. I'm tweaking the group rewards / stretch goals to be MUCH better. :)
More questions? Criticisms? (I actually LOVE those!) Let me know!

PS. I LOVE how that plugin uses the camera-retro icon. It's what started me on designing the whole Font Awesome thing. I hated all the existing camera icons. :)
 
@RickM: As far as the license goes, embedding is okay (like an iOS or web app). Redistribution is NOT, so far (like selling a theme that includes Black Tie). I'd LOVE to hear what you'd like to see in a redistribution license for themes.

@FredC: Fonts will be prioritized generally by votes. Now that I'm doing this full time and I have a LOT more time to focus on icon fonts. So I'm planning on building a tool that makes voting on specific icons clearer, easier, and more transparent (GitHub is GREAT for bugs and issues, but not specialized enough for voting on icons). And over time, Black Tie will absolutely grow in selection. The first version of Font Awesome started at 150 icons, too. I don't know if it will ever quite catch up, but we'll be making new ones on a regular basis. And the community will be able to vote on those, too. :)

Other questions? These are GREAT!
 
@FredC: Oh! I also forgot to mention that there's a Black Tie reward to have an icon added to Black Tie OR Font Awesome is you really need them. The reward gets you all 4 Black Tie styles, 2 T-shirts, and you get to choose one icon for $199. There's also a 5 icon pack for $799. It's the best way to ENSURE the icon you need gets added.

Other questions?
 
Just wanted to say... I am a huge fan of Font Awesome. I usually have zero interest in crowdfunding anything (bad experiences), but seeing the way you have handled the Q's, asked for suggestions or ideas and going in depth in explaining everything, I'll jump in on the fun and grab an early license. I'm interested in seeing what else you have to bring to this now, as well as FA.

Appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to come here and discuss your objectives and involve communities in your plans.
 
Just wanted to say... I am a huge fan of Font Awesome. I usually have zero interest in crowdfunding anything (bad experiences), but seeing the way you have handled the Q's, asked for suggestions or ideas and going in depth in explaining everything, I'll jump in on the fun and grab an early license. I'm interested in seeing what else you have to bring to this now, as well as FA.

Appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to come here and discuss your objectives and involve communities in your plans.

Agreed very cool to have you on here @Dave Gandy . I still make sprites when I have too but I much prefer using FA any day of the week :) Thanks for answering the questions being given here so far.
 
@FredC: Fonts will be prioritized generally by votes. Now that I'm doing this full time and I have a LOT more time to focus on icon fonts. So I'm planning on building a tool that makes voting on specific icons clearer, easier, and more transparent (GitHub is GREAT for bugs and issues, but not specialized enough for voting on icons). And over time, Black Tie will absolutely grow in selection. The first version of Font Awesome started at 150 icons, too. I don't know if it will ever quite catch up, but we'll be making new ones on a regular basis. And the community will be able to vote on those, too. :)

Other questions? These are GREAT!

I love font awesome and think it's could be a great step towards ensuring high quality vector based fast loading images that look great on the mobile and newer high pixel density displays.

If you'd like to set up a dedicated forum for your project I'd be happy to donate an unused XenForo licence I have. Threads have good voting tools and you can also also gauge interest in each icon by creating a dedicated thread for each one in a specific forum and then order the threads by those with the most first message likes.

upload_2014-6-24_0-34-47.webp


Mike and Kier use that method to gauge customer interest in what features to focus on in the XenForo Suggestions forum http://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-suggestions.18/

XF also features easy quick register features that tie into Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts as well as normal email registration, so it should be easy enough to encourage backers to register and participate in the voting.

Let me know if you'd like the licence :)
(You'd have to provide hosting though or ask someone else to sort that for you though)
 
Dear awesome backers,

I still can’t believe how quickly Black Tie was funded – thank you all so much again for your support and enthusiasm!

Since launching this project 10 days ago, I’ve received some questions about the future of the original Font Awesome, as well as requests for improvements to Font Awesome. Although I am venturing into the commercial realm with Black Tie, I am still completely committed to maintaining and improving the original Font Awesome. To show that commitment, I’ve made some big changes to the group rewards, which will benefit both Black Tie and the original Font Awesome. Please help me spread the word!

clj8P-i9ADQSv-xQyunWLdnRmnsWEQ06U_SIH8_LKooZ0WlHo4K-sVkwf9fkGvxG1kX_hJJ_oDgViMAJOUoxMDxbIiuf20h1fz926-2mI3gIlnP084D9IHcdnc7LDT6d3IACEN-XEV5Cy_8zD3KkJy6cAGFGRVD8seXX=s0-d-e1-ft

3,000 Backers – ANY dollar amount

Help me spread the word about Black Tie! If this project reaches 3,000 backers at any dollar amount, I will give the original Font Awesome a complete “gut renovation” including the following:
  • Retool every icon from scratch (same great style, optimize points for smaller file size per icon, better visual consistency)
  • Considerably improved icon search!
  • Better documentation showing how each icon fits into the 14px grid
  • More how-tos, including pixel-precise icon positioning
$60,000
  • 50 new icons will be added to Black Tie
  • AND 50 new icons to the original Font Awesome
$80,000
  • An extra 50 new icons will be added to Black Tie
  • AND an extra 50 new icons to the original Font Awesome
$100,000
  • I will build a custom icon subsetting tool that allows you to download just the icons you need for the original Font Awesome and Black Tie
  • I will add SVG support to Black Tie
  • AND SVG support to the original Font Awesome
As always, feel free to drop me a note if you have suggestions for additional features that you’d like me to consider adding to Black Tie and/or Font Awesome. Thanks so much again – you guys are awesome!

-Dave


Would be nice to get that magical 3000
 
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Was just coming to post this.

Some people seemed indifferent to the new product, which I can understand from some. But Font Awesome will live on, and now if more of us back Black Tie that can only benefit Font Awesome too. So yeah, let's get pledging :) Even if it's a small amount, it's a good starting point. You can always pledge more later. But every little helps!
 
Just upped my pledge to $89.

There is only 5 days left. I'm hoping we at least see this project hit $60,000 as if it does we'll see 50 new icons added to Font Awesome as well as Black Tie :)
 
Just upped my pledge to $89.

There is only 5 days left. I'm hoping we at least see this project hit $60,000 as if it does we'll see 50 new icons added to Font Awesome as well as Black Tie :)
It's a shame; it doesn't look as if he'll hit $100,000 – SVG support in Black Tie AND the original Font Awesome would of been... Awesome!
 
TAZ has upped its pledge to $199.

Choose an icon to be added to Black Tie OR the original Font Awesome - you decide the icon to be added, I do the design. Also includes 2 Awesome T-shirts + All 4 Black Tie styles.

Hmm... what to do with 2 Awesome T-shirts and how to decide which icon to add? :whistle:
 
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