diff --git a/R/fontawesome.R b/R/fontawesome.R
index 3ed8c75..fba8d30 100644
--- a/R/fontawesome.R
+++ b/R/fontawesome.R
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ fontawesome <- new_icon_set(
   "fontawesome",
   function(name, style = NULL){
     if(is.null(style)){
-      icon_find(name, "fontawesome")[[1]]
+      icon_guess(name, "fontawesome")
     } else {
       icon_fn$get(c(style, name))
     }
diff --git a/R/google_material.R b/R/google_material.R
index 5ad3136..2c491d4 100644
--- a/R/google_material.R
+++ b/R/google_material.R
@@ -99,15 +99,7 @@ google_material <- new_icon_set(
   "google_material",
   function(name, category = NULL, theme = NULL){
     if(is.null(category)){
-      x <- icon_find(name, "google_material")
-      if(is.null(theme)) {
-        x[[1]]
-      } else {
-        if(length(pos <- which(grepl(theme, names(x), fixed = TRUE))) != 1) {
-          abort("Could not find this specific icon from google_material.")
-        }
-        x[[pos]]
-      }
+      icon_guess(name, "google_material", pattern = theme)
     } else {
       icon_fn$get(c(theme, category, name))
     }
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 098838e..0572195 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -88,3 +88,15 @@ install_icon_zip <- function(lib, url, svg_path, svg_pattern = "\\.svg$",
 
   return(dl_dir)
 }
+
+icon_guess <- function(name, ..., pattern = NULL) {
+  icon_found <- icon_find(name, ...)
+  if(!is.null(pattern)) {
+    icon_found <- icon_found[grepl(pattern, names(icon_found), fixed = TRUE)]
+  }
+
+  if(rlang::is_empty(icon_found)) {
+    abort(sprintf("The %s icon could not be found. Perhaps its icon set needs installing or updating?", name))
+  }
+  icon_found[[1]]
+}