So i woke up today with a few of my designs getting more downloads in the last 12 hours than in the whole 2 weeks since making them. I wondered what was going on. Ill use my rx7 design as an example. It had accumulated around 50 downloads in the last 2 weeks, i woke up with it at 130 downloads. I searched for rx7 designs but it still only showed the ones with 1000s of downloads. But then i got into the rx7 and searched designs for “current car” this time it showed 5 paintjobs including mine infront of the ones with loads of downloads. (This also showed when i went to purchase the car) until now, the only designs ive seen in the first page is the most ones with the most downloads. This happened with 4 of my designs all for different cars and now theyre actually getting seen. Does anyone have any info on this? I think its fantastic that other people can now get there designs seen but want to know how it all works 
Yes … others have noticed the same thing. Happened two days ago. The first 5 slots are now being filled with new paints … not sure yet what the exact criteria is for selecting those 5 paints or how long they stay there. Starting with slot #6 we’re seeing the rest of the recommended designs sorted by most downloads as the whole 20 were sorted up until now.
Thankyou for the info. I think its crazy how they haven’t mentioned anything about this but im definitely pleased to see that others can now have their designs seen. Although one of the top 5 slots earlier had a plain pre-made camo paintjob but cant win them all lol. I do think alot of damage has already been done tho due to the way it has worked upto now, there are so many people over the 50k mark that just have no interest in making decent designs atall and on the other hand alot of people that spend hours and hours on designs and some of them are lucky to get 1000 downloads 
I have been checking today and they have made even more changes. What I am seeing now with the 20 recommended paints:
- (Labeled as Favorite Creator under Recommendation) Paints shared by creators I follow in-game.
- (Not labeled under Recommendation) Next come 10 new paints or paints with very few downloads. Not sure what the selection criteria for these 10 is.
- (Labeled as Popular under Recommendation) Next come paints sorted by most downloaded. These take up the remaining slots.
I have confirmed these same categories and sort order for multiple cars now. Perhaps they are slowly modifying things to resemble previous games. I still am not seeing livery contest winners show up as ‘Featured Designs’ or anything like that.
I’ve been getting some nice hits on a recent design release. And I have noticed what you have. The newer pieces have shifted all the way to the left while the older ones are on the right in the ‘find new designs menu.’ It’s a welcome site to click on ‘find new designs’ and see your piece on the screen.
Good info guys, gg
Quick update … livery contest winners are now being shown first as ‘Featured Items’ under Recommended Designs.
Let’s see if they’re permanent (when the next set of winners is implemented).
If they are I’ll enter this game’s livery contests again.
They are not permanent placements. The ‘Featured Item’ status for contest winners under Recommended Designs expires after a week when the next contest’s winners get featured.
Great news! Thank you for reacting to our problems and trying to change things for the community T10/PG!
Thankyou everyone for the responses and info on this matter. Im happy to see turn10 are actually doing something about how it has worked previously.