What Was The Best Topshot For The Ranger Article? We Made A Bunch Of Them – Tales From The Slack

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We have talked at some length about how the topshot–an old Gawker name for the image at the top of a post–is the key to making a post marketable online. If you don’t believe us, I’d allow you to look at the many competitors who have recently aped our style. Am I mad about this? Nope. If you can’t build a moat around it then you don’t really own it. Plus, we still usually do the best versions.

It’s not easy, though I think Jason and Peter help us succeed more than we fail (and when we fail it’s often my fault). We don’t just make a topshot and move on with our day, we frequently go through numerous rounds and ideas. Given our occasionally loose copy editing you might be surprised to find out how much we care about topshots.

For example, we all knew the Jet Fuel Ford Ranger thing this morning had legs. We’ve had a slow couple of weeks as we’ve been a little shorthanded and the early summer doldrums have hit. It’s important we show strong growth this quarter so we can justify more investment (thanks for becoming a member!) and a good post can help do that.

But what of the topshot?

Here’s the first one, proposed by Lewin:

Literally

This is quite good! Lewin has continued to adapt and improve his top-making game to the point that more and more of his topshots come from him. It’s a dynamic shot, it has a nice joke, and the text behind the Ranger looks clean.

Still, I liked this post a lot and had bigger ideas. So did Peter:

Img 3906

In a vacuum, it’s a good topshot. Maybe it’s the better topshot? I’m not sure. I just didn’t think the people who would want to read it would necessarily be into the cute approach. We used to say “write for the audience you want, not the audience you have” but we’re now trying to do both here on account of believing that a community is important.

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This was mine. The concept was to make it look like it’s attacking at night, especially because the images Ford supplied weren’t exhaustive.

Img 3908

Peter’s was good, yet again, but I just wasn’t feeling it.

Img 3909

Mine was imperfect, but it was good enough and interesting. [Ed Note: I was giving myself a Solid B and a D in the screen grab above – Pete]

Img 3910

Hah, is “wist” the noun form of “wistful”?

Peter is, low-key, maybe the funniest person here. He also never gives up.

Img 3911

Right concept, I think, but better execution. Also, again, PV is funny:

Img 3912

OK, so you tell me: Which one do you like best?

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13 thoughts on “What Was The Best Topshot For The Ranger Article? We Made A Bunch Of Them – Tales From The Slack”

  1. The title probably pulled me to read the article the most (a jet-engine Ranger?!), but any graphic was helpful. Honestly, the truck itself looks really boring, even with all the racks and stuff. The FLIR look would’ve been fun, but the night vision text also did the job. The shades and cup version looks like a truckstop tshirt. Add an umbrella and “Life’s a Beach” and cash in!

  2. The title probably pulled me to read the article the most (a jet-engine Ranger?!), but any graphic was helpful. Honestly, the truck itself looks really boring, even with all the racks and stuff. The FLIR look would’ve been fun, but the night vision text also did the job. The shades and cup version looks like a truckstop tshirt. Add an umbrella and “Life’s a Beach” and cash in!

  3. The published one is very good.

    I kinda like Lewin’s “Jet-Fueled” version a bit more, though, because the multi-fuel part of the story was the most interesting to me. The dark/silent mode deal with the little electric motor is still interesting, just not as much.

  4. The published one is very good.

    I kinda like Lewin’s “Jet-Fueled” version a bit more, though, because the multi-fuel part of the story was the most interesting to me. The dark/silent mode deal with the little electric motor is still interesting, just not as much.

  7. Unfortunately, I get my Autopian fix through an RSS feed reader that, for some reason, doesn’t show the topshots. Now I will click through to see all of this beautiful effort.

  8. Unfortunately, I get my Autopian fix through an RSS feed reader that, for some reason, doesn’t show the topshots. Now I will click through to see all of this beautiful effort.

  9. I had an Albanian co-worker, who could never remember the teamwork rhyme, so he would say “teamwork makes the dream come true”. That is the phrase in my mind, and every time someone makes the rhyme I want to correct them, then I realize I’m the one that’s wrong. Inside baseball, is hard for others to understand.

    1. So true. When I still taught school I did a ACT/SAT prep course every semester. I hated that either actually had questions that straight-up tested idioms. Idioms are often regional in their usage and also have zero reflection on anyone’s knowledge of English or academic ability. I had ESL kids who had better rhetorical and English mechanics knowledge than many college grads who would be stumped at almost any idiom, likewise native speakers who had just never been exposed.

      That experience strongly reinforced the notion that you shouldn’t judge anyone based on them not knowing something and instead take it as a wonderful moment to introduce someone into the “teamwork makes the sleeping worthwhile” club.

      1. That’s a litteral translation of a French idiom. It means to be frantically working on something but with no method, or with moving goals all the time, resulting in little progress for a lot of effort.

  10. I had an Albanian co-worker, who could never remember the teamwork rhyme, so he would say “teamwork makes the dream come true”. That is the phrase in my mind, and every time someone makes the rhyme I want to correct them, then I realize I’m the one that’s wrong. Inside baseball, is hard for others to understand.

    1. So true. When I still taught school I did a ACT/SAT prep course every semester. I hated that either actually had questions that straight-up tested idioms. Idioms are often regional in their usage and also have zero reflection on anyone’s knowledge of English or academic ability. I had ESL kids who had better rhetorical and English mechanics knowledge than many college grads who would be stumped at almost any idiom, likewise native speakers who had just never been exposed.

      That experience strongly reinforced the notion that you shouldn’t judge anyone based on them not knowing something and instead take it as a wonderful moment to introduce someone into the “teamwork makes the sleeping worthwhile” club.

      1. That’s a litteral translation of a French idiom. It means to be frantically working on something but with no method, or with moving goals all the time, resulting in little progress for a lot of effort.

  13. I feel like the selected top shot should have been Silent, but deadly since I get a distinct toxic fart vibe from that green cloud.

    But maybe there’s no room for additional bathroom humor since the Morning Dump is so close by.

  14. I feel like the selected top shot should have been Silent, but deadly since I get a distinct toxic fart vibe from that green cloud.

    But maybe there’s no room for additional bathroom humor since the Morning Dump is so close by.

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