# How to credit a creative project

A credit list is a record of who was there. On a case study page it's the one part nobody polishes, which is why it's worth getting right.

This guide is for studios publishing their own work. It uses real credit lists from the pick.

## What the pick shows

- The median project in the pick credits 15 people. 69 of 172 credit 20 or more.
- The largest list belongs to [Google Cloud 'March Madness'](https://vasari.design/work/google-cloud-march-madness-8277f9/) by Scholar: 81 people.
- 75 of 172 credit someone for sound or music.
- Across the pick, roles are written 966 different ways. "Leg Specialists", "Hand Model" and "Storyboard Intern" are all real.

## Put the credits on the page as text

Credits set inside an image, a video's end card or a PDF are hard for search engines and AI answers to read. Put them in the page as plain text: one role and one name per line.

## Credit everyone who was there

List freelancers by name, alongside staff. "And the team" credits nobody. If someone has since left the studio, the credit still stands. It records who was on the project.

The intern and the director get the same line. Vasari keeps the order a studio publishes, so the order is yours to choose. Most lists in the pick lead with direction and production, then follow the work through design, animation and sound.

## Write the role the way the project used it

There's no need to fit a standard title. "Storyboard Intern" says more than "Artist". Vasari copies roles exactly as published.

Two habits make a list easier to read:

- One role per line. "Design, Animation: Ricardo Drehmer" is fine. A paragraph of names isn't.
- Name companies the same way: "Music & Sound Design: Antfood".

## Link each name to its owner's site

A link makes the name findable: to the person's portfolio, or to the studio's site for a company. It also tells search engines which Jane Doe you mean.

## Add the markup

Schema.org lets the page say the same thing in a form machines read. A minimal version:

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "CreativeWork",
  "name": "Nothing, Playground",
  "creator": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "BUCK", "url": "https://buck.co" },
  "contributor": [
    { "@type": "Role", "roleName": "Executive Creative Director", "contributor": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Vincent Lammers" } },
    { "@type": "Role", "roleName": "Sound Design", "contributor": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Zelig" } }
  ]
}
```

The [credits generator](https://vasari.design/tools/credits/) writes both the HTML list and this markup from a pasted credit list. It's free, and nothing you paste leaves your browser.

## An example

[Nothing, Playground](https://vasari.design/work/nothing-playground-f9aae3/) by BUCK credits 18 roles, from Executive Creative Director to Sound Design. Each is on its own line, as text, with the role as the studio wrote it.

## Checklist

- Credits as text on the case study page.
- Every person and company, freelancers included.
- Roles as the project used them, one per line.
- Names linked to their own sites.
- The markup in the page's head.

From https://vasari.design/guides/how-to-credit-a-creative-project/