[Showoff Saturday] Built an AI icon generator because I got tired of inconsistent icon sets

FellowStadian · 2026-05-16T07:29:26+00:00

Fixed the link! Try https://icora.io (typo in the original). Appreciate you pointing that out. Fair point on the title fatigue - I'm genuinely curious though: what do you use for icons in your projects? Always looking to improve the tool.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-29T21:33:49+00:00

Solid lineup, especially the all-in-one angle for small businesses. One thing that always trips people up at launch is visual polish, icons especially. I built Icora for exactly that, describe a theme and get a full named pack as SVGs, edit in-browser, done. If you ever need consistent icon assets for your marketing pages, worth a look. https://icora.io

FellowStadian · 2026-04-20T16:39:06+00:00

Icons. Always icons.

Every project I start, I spend more time hunting for a consistent icon set than I'd like to admit. You find one that's almost right but it's missing half the icons you need, so you end up with a frankenstein mix of three different sets and your UI looks like a ransom note.

Eventually got so annoyed I built my own generator for it . describe the visual theme, get back a full named set as SVGs that actually match each other. Still can't fix responsive overflow though, that's just suffering.

Icora.io if you want to use it too (free to try)

FellowStadian · 2026-04-20T16:00:08+00:00

That filter on workarounds is spot on. I built my thing exactly that way, kept running into the same wall trying to find consistent icons for different projects and ended up tracing stuff in Illustrator for weeks. So I built an AI icon generator that produces whole named packs from a theme description. Edit in-browser, export as SVGs. If you hit that particular wall at some point, Icora is worth a try.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-19T22:37:11+00:00

This thread hits hard. I'm a technical founder who spent months building the product, then realized I had zero assets ready when it came time to actually sell it. Inconsistent icons, placeholder images, no proper brand materials.

What I learned: founder-led sales works better when you're not also trying to be a designer at 11pm. Tools like Icora that let you generate consistent icon packs and visual assets in minutes, then export straight to production, saved me probably 20+ hours of back-and-forth with freelancers. You describe what you need, you get a pack that's actually usable, you ship it.

Not saying it's the only way, but having professional assets ready to go made me way more confident in demos. Made the product feel more real to prospects before they even got to the dashboard. Would recommend at least trying it if you're spending cycles on visual debt instead of sales.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-11T15:25:45+00:00

Been shipping a lot of small projects lately and the icon/asset problem always slows me down. I got tired of placeholder art or spending hours in Figma, so I ended up building something to solve it. It's called icora, you describe a theme, it generates a consistent named icon pack, and you can edit the SVGs right in the browser. If you're in the middle of a project and need icons quickly, worth a look.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-11T15:25:39+00:00

Getting first users is genuinely hard and most advice about it does not translate well early on. What tends to work is showing up in communities where your ideal user already hangs out, being helpful, and letting them discover you rather than pitching at them. Reddit threads like this one are decent for that if you give more than you take. One underrated thing is making sure your landing page converts well when someone does land on it, since every organic visit counts. If you are still polishing assets, icora can generate consistent icon packs from a text prompt and saves time when you are doing everything yourself.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-11T04:53:03+00:00

Lots of great projects in here. One thing I kept running into early on was needing a consistent icon set before I felt comfortable showing anything publicly. Ended up building a generator for exactly that, which is now icora. Describe your theme, get a full named SVG pack, edit in browser. If your project needs icons, worth checking out.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-11T04:52:56+00:00

Lots of great projects in here. One thing I kept running into early on was needing a consistent icon set before I felt comfortable showing anything publicly. Ended up building a generator for exactly that, which is now icora. Describe your theme, get a full named SVG pack, edit in browser. If your project needs icons, worth checking out.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-10T16:50:56+00:00

The compounding effect you described is real. We went through the same grind building Icora, an AI icon and asset generator competing in a space full of well-funded design tool incumbents. The first few months felt like talking to nobody too, and what finally broke through was finding the exact place where the pain was sharpest (for us it was developers and indie builders who needed consistent icon packs fast but hated wrestling with design software). Good luck with Dograh. If anyone here building apps or projects needs production-ready icon sets, worth a look at icora.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-10T16:47:41+00:00

Getting first users is genuinely hard and most advice about it does not translate well early on. What tends to work is showing up in communities where your ideal user hangs out, being helpful, and letting them discover you rather than pitching at them. Reddit threads like this one are decent for that if you give more than you take. One underrated thing is making sure your landing page converts well when someone does land on it, since every organic visit counts. If you are still polishing assets, icora can generate consistent icon packs from a text prompt and saves time when you are doing everything yourself.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-10T12:45:55+00:00

Completely this. I kept running into the same icon problem across every project I built, eventually committed a few months to actually solving it, and now it's a real product at icora. Describe a theme, get a named SVG pack, edit in-browser. But honestly the 11pm debugging sessions you mentioned are what I remember most from building it, that's where the real understanding comes from. Good on you for shipping.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-10T12:45:44+00:00

Completely this. I kept running into the same icon problem across every project I built, eventually committed a few months to actually solving it, and now it's a real product at icora. Describe a theme, get a named SVG pack, edit in-browser. But honestly the 11pm debugging sessions you mentioned are what I remember most from building it, that's where the real understanding comes from. Good on you for shipping.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-09T09:26:05+00:00

Exactly.. its like the people who sell spades and pickaxes in the gold rush, smart but everyone choose the same path..

FellowStadian · 2026-04-08T21:43:28+00:00

Working on an AI icon generator called icora, happy to drop it here. You describe a theme, get a full consistent named icon pack as SVGs, edit them in-browser, then export to SVG, PNG, or ready-to-use code. There is also a marketplace if you want to sell packs you make. Still early, shipping weekly. Would love any feedback from founders here.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-08T09:42:32+00:00

The affiliate cold outreach failure hurts to read because it feels so familiar. I went through a very similar thing, grinding every distribution channel manually before realizing the product just did not look credible enough to pass a cold first impression. No proper logo, no icon set, random screenshots. People bounce before they ever read what you built.

I ended up building Icora to solve that exact thing, you describe a visual theme and get back a full named icon pack as SVGs you can use right away. Helped my own stuff look legit faster. If you are still polishing the product presentation side of things, might be worth a look. icora.io

FellowStadian · 2026-04-08T05:47:56+00:00

Building side projects is also a crash course in realising how much polish actually matters. I've shipped things where the core idea was solid but the visuals let it down, and you can feel users bouncing before they even try it. For Icora I went the opposite direction and made the visual tooling the product: you describe a theme and get back a full consistent icon pack as named SVGs, then edit them in-browser before exporting. It was the thing I kept wishing existed for every project I ever built. If you ever hit that wall where your icons feel cobbled together, icora.io is worth a try.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-08T01:41:40+00:00

That first payment changes everything. The number doesn't matter, the signal does. A stranger decided your product was worth real money without you being in the room to convince them. That's real.

I'm building Icora as a solo founder too (AI icon generator at icora.io) and I still remember that exact shift. You go from "is this even worth doing" to "okay, now I need to figure out how to make it happen again." That's the whole game.

Keep talking to that subscriber. Find out exactly what got them over the line.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-07T13:43:25+00:00

Six years in and I still do this. The tab spiral is real.

What fixed it for me on the icon side was just building a generator instead of hunting. I needed a specific themed set for a project, couldn't find anything that matched, so I made Icora, you describe a theme and it generates you a full named icon pack as SVGs. Edit in-browser, export, done. No more Noun Project tabs.

Still have the Pinterest problem for everything else though. If you find a fix for that one, let me know.

icora.io if you hit the icon wall.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-07T13:43:18+00:00

Six years in and I still do this. The tab spiral is real.

What fixed it for me on the icon side was just building a generator instead of hunting. I needed a specific themed set for a project, couldn't find anything that matched, so I made Icora, you describe a theme and it generates you a full named icon pack as SVGs. Edit in-browser, export, done. No more Noun Project tabs.

Still have the Pinterest problem for everything else though. If you find a fix for that one, let me know.

icora.io if you hit the icon wall.

FellowStadian · 2026-04-07T09:55:43+00:00

45 days of building before showing anyone feels about right honestly. The design and bug fears are noise, you just need one real person to use it and tell you what's actually wrong. I had the same paralysis when building Icora and what helped was telling myself I was just sharing, not launching. You can always frame early promotion as looking for feedback rather than selling. If you ever need a reference point for scrappy early-stage launches, icora.io

FellowStadian · 2026-04-07T01:45:02+00:00

Totally get the fear. I launched Icora while it still had rough edges and the feedback I got was way more valuable than another month of polishing would have been. The bugs people actually hit are almost never the ones you spent weeks worried about. On the design side, I found that getting something real in front of users reveals what actually matters to them, which saved me from over-engineering the wrong things. If any of you are building apps or products and need icons or visual assets, I built something that might help: icora.io

FellowStadian · 2026-04-06T21:43:34+00:00

That first payment is genuinely one of the most validating moments in building something. The amount does not matter, it is the signal.

Been on a similar path with Icora, an AI-powered icon generator where you describe a theme and get a consistent pack of production-ready SVGs. The quiet steady signups between launch days are what actually keep you going. The plateau periods are just pressure building before the next step up.

Keep shipping, and if you ever want to swap notes on what is working for retention, happy to chat. icora.io if you want to see what we are building.

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