UIBarButtonItem Utility: Quick & Dirty bar button item creation using Font Awesome, Text Attributes, and Background images.

UIBarButtonItem+Utility.h

// Author: Kerri Shotts
// MIT LIcense

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIBarButtonItem (Utility)

+(UIBarButtonItem *) barButtonItemUsingFontAwesomeIcon: (NSString *)iconKey
                                                target: (id)theTarget
                                                action: (SEL)theAction
                               withTitleTextAttributes: (NSDictionary *)textAttributes
                                    andBackgroundImage: (UIImage *)theImage;

+(UIBarButtonItem *) barButtonItemWithTitle: (NSString *)theTitle
                                     target: (id)theTarget
                                     action: (SEL)theAction
                    withTitleTextAttributes: (NSDictionary *)textAttributes
                         andBackgroundImage: (UIImage *)theImage;

@end

UIBarButtonItem+Utility.m

// Author: Kerri Shotts
// MIT LIcense

#import "UIBarButtonItem+Utility.h"
#import "NSString+FontAwesome.h"

@implementation UIBarButtonItem (Utility)

+(UIBarButtonItem *) barButtonItemUsingFontAwesomeIcon: (NSString *)iconKey
                                                target: (id)theTarget
                                                action: (SEL)theAction
                               withTitleTextAttributes: (NSDictionary *)textAttributes
                                    andBackgroundImage: (UIImage *)theImage
{
  UIBarButtonItem *b = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:[NSString fontAwesomeIconStringForIconIdentifier: iconKey]
                                                        style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:theTarget action:theAction];
  [b setTitleTextAttributes:textAttributes forState:UIControlStateNormal];
  [b setBackgroundImage:theImage forState:UIControlStateNormal barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
  return b;
}

+(UIBarButtonItem *) barButtonItemWithTitle: (NSString *)theTitle
                                     target: (id)theTarget
                                     action: (SEL)theAction
                    withTitleTextAttributes: (NSDictionary *)textAttributes
                         andBackgroundImage: (UIImage *)theImage
{
  UIBarButtonItem *b = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:theTitle style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:theTarget action:theAction];  
  [b setTitleTextAttributes:textAttributes forState:UIControlStateNormal];
  [b setBackgroundImage:theImage forState:UIControlStateNormal barMetrics:UIBarMetricsDefault];
  return b;
}

@end

Usage

You can use it like so:

    #import "NSString+FontAwesome.h"
    ...
    NSDictionary *faTextAttributes = @{ UITextAttributeFont : [UIFont fontWithName: kFontAwesomeFamilyName size: 22],
                                           UITextAttributeTextColor : [UIColor whiteColor],
                                           UITextAttributeTextShadowColor: [UIColor blackColor],
                                           UITextAttributeTextShadowOffset: [NSValue valueWithCGSize:  CGSizeMake(0,-1)] };
    NSDictionary *largeTextAttributes = @{ UITextAttributeFont : [UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Bold" size:20],
                                           UITextAttributeTextColor : [UIColor whiteColor],
                                           UITextAttributeTextShadowColor: [UIColor blackColor],
                                           UITextAttributeTextShadowOffset: [NSValue valueWithCGSize:  CGSizeMake(0,-1)] };  
    UIImage *blankImage = [UIImage new];

    UIBarButtonItem *aMenuButton = [UIBarButtonItem barButtonItemUsingFontAwesomeIcon:@"icon-reorder" 
                                    target:self action:@selector(showMenu:) 
                                    withTitleTextAttributes:faTextAttributes 
                                    andBackgroundImage:blankImage];

    UIBarButtonItem *aTextButton = [UIBarButtonItem barButtonItemWithTitle:@"M" 
                                    target:self action:@selector(doSomething:) 
                                    withTitleTextAttributes:largeTextAttributes 
                                    andBackgroundImage:blankImage];
  
You must have iOS FontAwesome from https://github.com/alexdrone/ios-fontawesome and the Font Awesome font itself added to your project.