A Portfolio About NothingA Gateway concept
Vandelay Industries — a gold and red V encircled by a global orbit

IMPORTERS EXPORTERS
EXCELLENT REFERENCES

A name you can say with confidence

Importing
Exporting Yada yada yada

An international vision with a surprisingly domestic headquarters

At Vandelay, we’re nothing if not enterprising.

Meet Art Vandelay
Vandelay World Headquarters
Please note

If the phone rings,
say Vandelay

Confidence is our leading export

Our most rigorous interview question

“And you want to be my latex salesman?”

Jerry S. / reluctant employment reference

Apply anyway

The Vandelay difference

Very
impressive

Vandelay Industries imports and exports latex and latex-related products. We buy from manufacturers on five continents and run the whole operation from one office on the Upper West Side.

We’re new, so there isn’t a long client list to show you yet. What we can promise is consistency: ask anyone here a question and you’ll get the same answer. We agree on the story before the phone rings.

A remarkably broad portfolio

What we do

Four divisions, one telephone, and a founder who is generally speaking.

Importing & exporting

Things come in. Things go out. It’s a whole operation.

GLOBAL TRADE

Latex & related products

A flexible foundation for an equally flexible enterprise.

MATERIALS

Architectural pursuits

It has always been an ambition of the founder. Mostly in conversation.

ASPIRATIONS

Bottle deposit recovery

Five cents a bottle in New York, ten in Michigan. We’ll drive.

REVERSE LOGISTICS

Why it’s built this way

Say it with a picture

The headline says “an international vision with a surprisingly domestic headquarters.” The map shows it in the time it takes to look. When one picture can carry a claim, it should.

A world map of Vandelay’s trade routes: lines run from Rotterdam, Lagos, Cape Town, Mumbai, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, Santos and Valparaíso, and every one of them ends at the same apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Connecting the world to the Upper West Side

The executive directory

The right people

Why it’s built this way

Custom solutions for everyday needs, suited to your business

Every business needs a page that shows who works there. Instead of relying on standard, templated design concepts like the matching grid of headshots every “Meet the Team” page uses, we asked what a directory would look like in this company’s world and built that. Press a name and the details are all still there.

129 West 81st Street

Vandelay Industries, 5A

No photographs, at the request of 5A (no matter what Kramer says).

Press any name on the board to open that person’s file

Careers at Vandelay

There is one position.
It has been filled four times

Confidence essential. Telephone coordination strongly preferred. All references will be briefed in advance, whether they like it or not.

The Vandelay Industries Employee of the Month plaque: a walnut board whose brass nameplates take turns between Vandelay, Varnsen, Pennypacker and Newman, with the last plate still blank, and in the picture window a card reading: photograph withheld at the request of 5A.
December is still open

Why it’s built this way

A form nobody gives up on

Who hasn’t been annoyed by a form that keeps telling you that you formatted something wrong, or asks confusing or ambiguous questions? The email address is the one thing Vandelay truly needs, because it’s how they write back, so it’s the only field the system validates. Everything else is a click or a sentence of any length, for ease of use, and none of it is required: Vandelay flagged it as helpful but not absolutely necessary, since applications have been scarce.

Send it and see what happens next. Gateway makes sure every detail on a form is necessary, and we keep adjusting after things go live, based on the data we collect and evaluate with our Gateway Care Plan.

One positionImporter / Exporter · Full time · Begins immediately

This is a demonstration. Nothing you enter here is saved or sent anywhere. We’ve filled in a sample email address so you don’t have to enter your own.

If the phone rings, what do you say?
Could you pass as a marine biologist for one afternoon?
Have you ever held a job that didn’t exist?
How would you describe your relationship with the truth?
How long can you nap under a desk undetected?

Why it’s built this way

Returns without the runaround

A clear returns form keeps customers who would otherwise just leave. This one shows the deposit as you type, asks only for what it needs, and ends with a reference number and what happens next.

Bottle deposit recovery

Request a return

This is a demonstration. Nothing you enter here is saved or sent anywhere. We’ve filled in a sample email address so you don’t have to enter your own.

New York, at 5¢—

Michigan, at 10¢—

Press the picture to magnify. Press again to pull back.

The website

What Vandelay Industries needed

Standing in for a brand-new company with nothing to show yet.

The problem

A brand-new company with nothing to show yet: no finished work, no client list, no reviews. Every ordinary way of proving a business is real needs a history it has not had time to build.

What we built

Plain answers to what the company does and who does it, with named people in actual roles instead of stock photographs. A custom design that matches Vandelay’s business, from the route map to the lobby board. And a careers section that genuinely receives an application, checks it and answers with a reference number.

Credibility before proof comes from being specific and from replying when someone gets in touch — both of which a new company can do on day one.