From a base in Oslo, Norway, graphic design agency Bleed (www.bleed.no) has built an impressive international clientele. Creative director and partner Kjetil Wold explains the ins and outs.

Q. When you are working with clients like Pepsi, do you have to compromise your ideas to fit their global vision?
A. Clients like Pepsi allow us to challenge them within the set vision of the brand. I think that great ideas are often brought to life when you manage to challenge the brief and work with creativity within the borders. We don’t do a lot of compromising; if we believe in a solution we stick to it and work more on discussing why we believe in it, rather than just pushing out new ideas all the time. Pepsi has shown us a lot of respect for our creative competence and that’s how we can develop unique solutions that strengthen the brand and solutions.

Q. Who do you generally deal with and can it be a long process to get approval?
A. We generally deal with the marketing manager and category manager, first on local markets then internationally. Once the overall concept is approved, we are more or less free to develop our ideas. It can take some time in the beginning of the approval process, but once it’s blessed it moves ahead fast, and it often has to in order to meet the deadlines.

Q. Does the client provide all the elements, logos and copy that you have to incorporate?
A. The client provides Bleed with the necessities, but often Bleed develops most of the graphics needed for the campaigns.

Q. Do you generally provide all the advertising strands, product branding, point of sale, websites and so on, to a client like Pepsi?
A. It depends on the job, but often Bleed sets the concept, develops the style and sets up the websites for Pepsi. The different elements are through a developed toolkit folder sent and incorporated by other agencies on retail, events and advertising.

Q. And finally, with a client so high profile, how does it feel seeing the finished product?
A. Seeing the end result is always the highlight of any project. Being satisfied with it and knowing that people are being affected by your decisions is a great bonus.