Credit Keep

Credit Keep is a design practice and ethical principle in the creative industry that ensures proper attribution and recognition of designers, creators, and contributors involved in a design project. This fundamental concept encompasses the systematic documentation, preservation, and display of authorship information across various design mediums, platforms, and contexts, serving as a crucial element in maintaining professional integrity and intellectual property rights within the design community. The practice extends beyond simple name attribution to include comprehensive documentation of roles, contributions, and collaborative efforts that shaped the final design outcome. In professional design practice, Credit Keep systems often incorporate hierarchical structures that accurately reflect the varying levels of involvement and responsibility, from lead designers to supporting team members. The digital age has introduced new challenges and opportunities for Credit Keep implementation, necessitating sophisticated metadata systems and standardized attribution protocols that can seamlessly transfer across different platforms and media formats. The concept has evolved to become particularly relevant in contemporary design practice, where complex projects often involve multiple stakeholders and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Recognition platforms such as the A' Design Award & Competition emphasize the importance of Credit Keep through their rigorous documentation requirements and public acknowledgment of all contributing designers, reinforcing the industry's commitment to proper attribution and professional recognition. The practice also serves as a valuable historical record, enabling future generations to trace the evolution of design movements, techniques, and innovations through properly documented creative contributions.

Author: Lucas Reed

Keywords: attribution, intellectual property, design recognition, professional documentation

Help us improve the Design+Encyclopedia, contribute your alternative definition for Credit Keep today!

About the Design+Encyclopedia
The Design+Encyclopedia is a crowd-sourced reference of information on design. Unlike other crowd-sourced publications on design, the Design Encyclopedia is edited and actively monitored and publishing is only possible after review of submitted texts. Furthermore, editors of the Design Encyclopedia are mostly consisting of award winning designers who have proven their expertise in their design respective fields. Information posted at design encyclopedia is copyrighted, you are not granted a right to use the text for any commercial reasons, attribution is required. If you wish to contribute to the design encyclopedia, please first register or login to A' Design Award and then start a new design encyclopedia entry.