By: Eden Hensley; Photos by Brooke Dennis for Alt Summit
It’s often said “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (Charles Caleb Colton).” In fashion, an entire industry is devoted to replicating designer labels for less.
With blogging, we’re all consuming similar media. So it’s very likely we’ll come up with similar projects. Few intentionally want to repurpose someone else’s project as their own, but knowing who to credit and how to credit them can be tricky. And how do you handle a project that was originally inspired from another person’s work that is now part of your signature work? Do you include the citation forever?
For a project, you may have an art director, a stylist, a photographer, a writer, an editor, and more. Sometimes one person fills all the roles. Who do you credit? Do you identify everyone involved?
Further complicating attribution is the speed at which ideas spread and often do so without original context.
To simplify how to properly recognize your inspiration, here’s everything you ever wanted to know — and more — about how to properly give credit:
- Three basic etiquette tips for copying and crediting.
- The Definitive Guide to What Is and Isn’t an Original Source according to Chelsea Fuss of Frolic.
- Copying and Credit: A Discussion of Where the Line Begins and Ends by Grace Bonney of DesignSponge addresses what you can do if you see work you feel is copied from an artist or designer you love.
- A Resource Guide for Photography Copyright, compiled by William and Susan Brinson of The House of Brinson, where you’ll find everything you ever needed to know about copyright.
- Should I Post This Image flowchart guides you through a series of questions to determine whether or not you should use a particular image on your site.
- The art of citation from Hubspot covers crediting sources in your blog posts and on social media, giving credit to guest bloggers and ghost writers, as well as citing images and visual content.
