Blog

Behind the WordPress Block: Fueled.com’s Animated 3D Objects

One of the more ambitious design goals behind the new Fueled.com involved bringing to life animated 3D objects in the browser—without relying on WebGL or heavy, real-time rendering.

The solution was a custom animation system that simulates 3D using optimized image sequences, built leveraging WebP image formats, Motion.js, and Intersection Observer techniques. The final product offers smooth, high-quality animation that works reliably across devices and browsers.

Packaged within a custom Gutenberg block, editors can easily select from multiple 3D objects, customize styles with blend modes, and see a preview directly inside the WordPress editor.

I’ve published a deep dive article breaking down the path to the final product—from early experiments with videos and sprite sheets to lightweight image sequences and smart rendering logic to our approach to the custom WordPress editor block.

Read the full article on LinkedIn, and get in touch if you’d like help creating this kind of experience for your own digital properties.

How We Evaluated Modern Front-End Frameworks for a High-Traffic Publishing Platform

Sam Brodie on June 18

When our partners at Minute Media set out to modernize the front end behind their publishing platform—powering brands like Sports Illustrated and SI Swimsuit—their goals were clear: improve performance, streamline developer experience, and make the stack easier to evolve over time.

Their internal team had been working with React, but was hitting performance ceilings—especially when it came to JavaScript execution and time to interactive. While React and Next.js remained options, they were open to exploring newer frameworks that might better support their long-term goals.

White Paper: Digital Accessibility Strategies for Government Efficiency and Trust

Brian Bourn on June 11

Government Accessibility Pillars: Architecture, Assistive, Preventative, and Auditing.

We build websites and digital experiences that help people access the services and information they need. Nowhere is this more important than in the public sector, where inaccessible websites and apps can shut out millions – and often those most in need of public services.

Fueled’s new white paper, Accessible by Design: Digital Strategies for Government Efficiency and Trust, offers a framework for turning legal requirements into opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and inclusion. You can download it over on the Fueled website (10up is now the WordPress practice of Fueled).

Getting Basic Styles From Figma to WordPress in Minutes: A New Figma Plugin

Fabian Kaegy on June 5

At Fueled, we aim to close the gap between tools designers love and platforms developers trust, while automating repetitive busy work. That philosophy inspired the creation of the Figma to WordPress Automation: a new open source plugin for Figma that streamlines a tedious, time-consuming step that’s a part of every modern WordPress project.

This tool exports design tokens from Figma directly into a WordPress theme.json file, which defines a theme’s global design system—like colors, typography, and spacing—so styles are consistent and selectable in the content editor. This automation transforms what was once a tedious 10–15 hour task into a process that takes about an hour.

Read the full story on the Fueled blog.

WordPress Launches AI Team Chaired by Google, Automattic, and Fueled’s 10up Practice Leaders

Jeff Paul on June 3

This post has been cross-posted on the Fueled website.

I’m excited to share that I’ve joined the newly formed WordPress AI Team, working alongside Felix Arntz and Pascal Birchler from Google, and James LePage from Automattic. Together, as the launch team, we aim to shape how artificial intelligence is integrated into the WordPress ecosystem—not just abstractly, but through practical tools and features that help WordPress evolve and remain competitive.

My participation follows more than 6 years of investment into open source AI integrations for WordPress at Fueled (in case you missed it, 10up is now the WordPress practice of Fueled), in addition to a decade of varied contributions to WordPress. As the Director of our Open Source Practice, I’ve collaborated with engineering to advance our open source Artificial Intelligence plugin for WordPress, ClassifAI, and project managed client engagements using it as the foundation for custom AI integrations. I’m honored to bring that experience into this next chapter for WordPress.

Read the full story on the Fueled blog.

Making Google Site Kit: A 7-Year Open Source Collaboration

Emily Clarke on May 27

In 2018, Google came to us with a big question: what would it take to bring essential tools like Analytics, Search Console, and AdSense directly inside WordPress, the CMS powering more than 40% of the web?

The answer became Google Site Kit: a secure, first-party plugin built natively for WordPress, offering website owners trusted access to vital Google’s services, without the friction of third-party setups or unclear integrations.

Over the past seven years, Site Kit has grown into one of the most widely adopted plugins in the WordPress ecosystem. Today, it boasts more than 5 million active installs, and recently broke into the top 10 most popular WordPress plugins on the official directory. From the very beginning, we’ve been partnered with Google driving Site Kit, across engineering, design, QA, support, product strategy, and platform evolution.

AI Meets Emotion: Helping Microsoft Research Build Mosaic

Thomas King on May 22

We often talk about building tools and platforms that empower expression—whether that’s helping storytellers reach audiences at scale or supporting open source contributors that empower developers. But sometimes, digital expression takes a more literal shape.

When Microsoft Research set out to explore how people feel about AI, not through charts or surveys, but through art, they imagined Mosaic: an interactive, AI-powered mural that translated individual sentiment into stylized portraits using ChatGPT and DALL·E.

Our team was brought in to help bring that vision to life: an emotionally resonant, cinematic experience designed for reflection, not just interaction.

Working closely with Microsoft’s internal team, we helped shape Mosaic as a fluid, immersive canvas—not a traditional web interface. Built with React, Three.js, and Azure-hosted OpenAI models, the platform interpreted thousands of text responses, mapped them to emotional categories, and rendered unique visual portraits in real time.

Rebuilding Fueled.com: A New Brand, Powered by WordPress and AI

Fabian Kaegy on May 20

The unification of our two agencies under the Fueled name called for a major brand refresh, capturing how a fully integrated Fueled and 10up had forged something materially different and stronger together. The new website would be the first public expression of that identity, showcasing our integrated capabilities and revitalized vision.

From the outset, we knew the new site would run on WordPress. It was a chance to dogfood the modern, efficient stack we’ve been refining over years of client work—bringing together our flexible block based theme, AI-accelerated development workflows, and a more collaborative, in-browser approach to content and design.

The result? A performant, scalable, visually engaging site—engineered in just eight weeks by the 10up WordPress practice inside Fueled. It’s a showcase of the product-minded thinking, reusable systems, and modern tooling we bring to every engagement.

Meet the new Fueled brand; 10up becomes the brand of our WordPress practice

Jake Goldman on May 13

When Fueled and 10up joined in 2023, we aligned two leading agencies, each renowned for innovation, craftsmanship, and excellence. This week, we take a big step forward in our journey: the unveiling of our refreshed and unified company brand as Fueled.

The name may be familiar, but our revitalized identity encapsulates our collective achievements and boldly speaks to a time of transformation. It tells a more complete story about who we are together, what we’re building, and how we’re evolving in a fast-changing digital world.

Using AI and WordPress to Raise the Bar for Civic Technology with CalMatters and Cal Poly

Steve Meyers on April 29

At Fueled+10up, we believe technology can—and should—make the world more understandable, accessible, and transparent. That’s why we were proud to partner with CalMatters, a leading nonprofit newsroom focused on California policy and politics, and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) to create DigitalDemocracy.org: a first-of-its-kind, AI-powered platform that makes government data easier for everyday citizens and journalists to explore, understand, and act on.

Working together, we helped bring massive, often fragmented public datasets—legislation, campaign donations, committee transcripts, hearing videos, and more—into a single, intuitive experience powered by a modern, headless WordPress architecture, Elasticsearch, and AI-enhanced content aggregation.

The result is an unprecedented public resource that brings new life to civic transparency—and sets a new standard for making government data truly accessible.

You can read the full case study to dive deeper into how we combined cutting-edge technology with thoughtful user experience and design.

If you’re ready to build a platform that moves the needle—whether it’s in civic tech, media, or beyond—we’d love to start the conversation.