We are currently not looking to add this into our core framework. It is easy enough to customize yourself. Also do we currently only want to fix bugs, etc. and then we will look into adding new features again.
As @tomscholz wrote, not part of the official Material Design guidelines. @aheinze created something here: https://codepen.io/arturheinze/details/ZGvOMw
@Native-Coder I looked at what @DanielRuf posted it and expanded it to match what you needed: https://codepen.io/anon/pen/owzQWM. If the img element lacks a src attribute, it will add the avatar effect, otherwise it will just display the image as normal.
@smileytechguy Thats pretty perfect! Thank you!
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As @tomscholz wrote, not part of the official Material Design guidelines. @aheinze created something here: https://codepen.io/arturheinze/details/ZGvOMw