Building Relations: On Giving Credit
Giving credit where it is due and to the people that deserve it is an art of giving back and I find it very rewarding. When I enjoy working on a project I want to express my gratitude to the people I worked with and to recommend my peers to the rest of the world!
Since I often work with models, photographers, make up artists, graphic designers or other programmers, I've learned a thing or two about giving them some credit, sometimes by contract, but mostly out of common sense.
In this post I'd like to quickly sum up how I credit and promote people I work with and explain why I think it's a good idea.
TLDR;: Link, mention and thank anyone you enjoy working with.
As Students We Gain Great Networks
First of all I find myself in a very, very fortunate position as a student. Meeting people is easy. If you're at a university or academy you probably are in the same position. You meet people in your field of interest and talented, smart people with related or completely different fields of interest are just across the campus.This is great for many reasons, basically you can work on small projects with anyone you want by just asking and gain from their experience and education.
Also as a student you probably have more time than money, so you have less of a barrier to cross when you're asked to work on something for free or to decide if you want to work on a cool project a couple of hours per week for free.
It's An Honour To Work With Your Peers
If you work with somebody you enjoy, let them know. If you successfully publish an outcome of that colaboration, let the world know!Maybe you have not experienced it yet, but work sometimes can get stressful and many around you will look for easy ways out of situations, assign blame or simply give up. Working with anyone who does not do so, I consider an honour.
Mention Peers, It Will Be Your Gain!
Empowering whoever you work with, will ultimatively be for your better. By giving a short shout out, a thank you or a miniature testimonial they are more likely to succeed in their professional life, gain more experience or even get their dream job.This is great for you, because they will bring back all their skills and experience when working with you the next time.
Be Humble, We Can't Do It Alone
Few are blessed with many extraordinary talents at once, to accomplish great things across multiple disciplines, you will probably team up with others sooner or later. Trying to handle everything by yourself will possibly end up drowning you in an infinite loop of learning and training, whithout getting anything shipped.Ask your peers for advice and be humble when receiving it, if you know they have decent experience in a field. If you apply their advice or not is another story, but give them a fair chance to try to make your life easier or your product better.
Admitting you can not do something alone is not a weakness, but opens a great deal of doors that lead to success.
Summary
It may seem like a trivial thing, but lawsuits have been fought over missing credits, many more possibilities have been missed out on, because we simply don't talk about who we work with and why we enjoyed it!No matter if we're artists or craftsmen, we all have our supporters, peers, as we have idols and heroes.
So, who do you like working with the most? ;)