Oscar Wilde

Principles are our summary of their public statements.

• Avoid the Obsolescence of Modernity

  Content

  Focusing on contemporary subjects makes work age quickly; instead, choose timeless themes that do not concern the immediate present.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Intentions  (opens in a new tab)

• Analyze the Source of Impression

  Marketing

  To master a craft, one must investigate the source of the impression a work produces and how that feeling is engendered in the audience.

  Supporting quotes

  • “To know the principles of the highest art is to know the principles of all the arts.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Prioritize Style and Unity

  Product

  Raw material only becomes a finished product when an individual imposes a unique style and unity upon it.

  Supporting quotes

  • “All fine imaginative work is self-conscious and deliberate. No poet sings because he must sing. At least, no great poet does. A great poet sings because he chooses to sing.”

    “Every century that produces poetry is, so far, an artificial century, and the work that seems to us to be the most natural and simple product of its time is always the result of the most self-conscious effort.”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Reinterpret Through New Materials

  Creativity

  True criticism and creation involve taking an existing idea and presenting it through a different medium or form to reveal new truths.

  Supporting quotes

  • “If you wish to understand others you must intensify your own individualism.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Leverage condensed experience

  Learning

  Reading high-quality work allows one to gain decades of insight and emotional depth in a fraction of the time.

  Supporting quotes

  • “We can choose our day and select our hour.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Prioritize Self-Education Over Teaching Others

  Learning

  One must focus on their own intellectual growth before attempting to influence or educate others, as constant output without input leads to stagnation.

  Supporting quotes

  • “We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Let Form Suggest Content

  Creativity

  Start with a beautiful framework or system, and let that structure dictate the ideas and emotions that fill it.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Intentions  (opens in a new tab)

• Focus limits perspective

  Focus

  The intense energy required to create something unique often blinds the creator to alternative methods or the value of different approaches.

  Supporting quotes

  • “It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Cultivate the critical instinct

  Learning

  True wisdom comes from developing a subtle quality of discernment rather than just accumulating unconnected facts or following public opinion.

  Supporting quotes

  • “It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Distill the essence of work

  Productivity

  A leader must take a massive amount of information or creative output and refine it into a clear, usable form.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Intentions  (opens in a new tab)

• Aesthetics over mere ethics

  Marketing

  To change behavior or culture, focus on making the wrong actions seem vulgar or unattractive rather than just immoral.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Intentions  (opens in a new tab)

• Cultivate a philosophic temper

  Mindset

  Avoid the fanaticism of sincerity; instead, maintain a flexible mind that loves truth without being bound by rigid dogmas.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Intentions  (opens in a new tab)

• Acknowledge the power of illusion

  Brand

  Effective presentation relies on creating a believable environment through accurate or evocative details that immerse the customer in the experience.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Intentions  (opens in a new tab)

• Use research to eliminate friction

  Marketing

  Thorough research should serve to make a product more intuitive and dramatic, removing the need for tedious descriptions or explanations.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Intentions  (opens in a new tab)

• Master the context of your subject

  Learning

  An artist or creator must study the historical and cultural background of their subject to avoid inaccuracies that break immersion.

  Supporting quotes

  • “As a study of colour it is superb, but it is difficult to feel a human interest in this Egyptian peasant.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Avoid uninteresting accuracy

  Product

  Focusing on mundane details with painful accuracy without adding depth or feeling results in uninteresting work. One should avoid the 'photographic style' if it lacks soul.

  3 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Miscellanies  (opens in a new tab)

• Avoid False Imitation

  Brand

  A product loses its value when it tries to look like something else; it should honestly announce its actual purpose.

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

  Source Miscellanies  (opens in a new tab)

• Maintain Harmony Between Components

  Product

  A product's various elements, such as text and illustration, must share a mechanical and artistic harmony to be effective.

  Supporting quotes

  • “No ornament or illustration should be used in a book which cannot be printed in the same way as the type.”

    “By doing good work we raise life to a higher plane”

  1 more supporting quote is in the member records.

• Subordinate Appearance to Motive

  Strategy

  The designer makes the appearance of an object subordinate to its decorative motive and space limitations. Function and decorative intent should guide the form, not accidental natural effects.

  Supporting quotes

  • “Art depends on Life. We cannot get it from machines. And yet machines are bad only when they are our masters. The printing press is a machine that Art values because it obeys her.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.

• Combine Culture with Temperament

  Learning

  Study the best existing models and combine that knowledge with your own unique personality to produce admirable work.

  Supporting quotes

  • “She refused to sandpaper her muse. She disliked facile smoothness and artificial polish. In her very rejection of art she was an artist.”

  2 more supporting quotes are in the member records.