Docs
People choose the work. Simple rules order it.
Everything that decides what you see on Visual Explorer is written down here. If the site ever works differently from this page, the page is wrong and we’ll fix it.
Principles
Visual Explorer was built around a short list of convictions. Every feature on the site traces back to one of them.
Chosen, not collected. An archive is only as good as what it leaves out. Nothing appears here because it was uploaded; it appears because an editor looked at it and said yes.
The work is the interface. The site is black, white and quiet so the only color on the page is the work. Pieces are shown whole, uncropped and at full resolution. Blurry, compressed or letterboxed work doesn’t run.
Credit comes first. Every project page names the maker, prominently, with a link back to where the work came from. Makers can claim their work or have it taken down, no reason needed.
The rules are public. How the feed is ordered is written on this page in plain words. Everyone sees the same feed. There is no hidden profile deciding what you get.
Earned, not bought. Stripes, badges, the tick and a place on the leaderboard all come from work that was approved and from how other makers respond to it. Sponsors are always labeled and can’t buy a better position for their work.
Competition makes the work better. Rank is visible, every badge states what it took, and anyone can see who is ahead of them. Earn your stripes.
Useful after you’ve looked. A good archive should feed your next project. Each piece carries its tools and a palette you can copy, and you can browse by category or by the tool that made it.
Independent. Visual Explorer answers to its editors and its makers. What gets in is an editorial decision, never a commercial one.
People, not AI
Every piece in the Archive was approved by a human editor who looked at it. No AI model reviews, scores, approves or declines submissions.
No AI model builds or personalizes the feed. Everyone sees the same order, set by the rules below.
The work you see is the maker’s own. We don’t generate images or video.
Getting in
Members submit work by pasting an X post or uploading a file, in one of six categories: Websites, Apps, Graphics, Editorials, Logos and Components.
An editor reviews each submission. Approved work goes live straight away. Declined work comes back with the reason, such as wrong category or image quality too low.
The bar is quality. Sharp, full-resolution work only, shown at the highest quality we were given.
The main feed
First place: the newest editors’ pick.
Second and third: the most-striped work published in the last 30 days. If nothing recent has stripes yet, these places follow the rule below.
Everything after: popularity and freshness together. A post’s score is its stripes plus two, divided by its age in days plus two raised to the power 1.3. Stripes lift a post; time lowers it.
Category, tool and search pages
Category and tool pages open with their three most-striped posts, then run newest first.
Search results and profiles are newest first.
Stripes
A stripe is a member’s vote for a piece of work. One per member per post. You can’t stripe your own work, and you can take a stripe back.
Badges and the leaderboard
Badges are awarded automatically for things like approved work, the categories and tools you work in, stripes received and sponsoring. Every badge says what it took to earn.
The leaderboard ranks makers by how many badges they hold. Ties go to whoever has more approved work, then to whoever became a maker first. Visual Explorer’s own account is never ranked.
Verification
A tick means two things are true: the account has a confirmed email or a connected X account, and at least one piece of its work has been approved.
Following
Follow a maker from their profile. New members start out following the official accounts. Follower counts are public; the list of who you follow is not.
Sponsored posts
Sponsors pay for a placement in the feeds. It is always labeled Sponsored. It sits fourth on phones and eighth on larger screens, then once every sixteen posts.
We take no more than three sponsors a month. Each sponsorship starts the day payment is received and runs for a rolling 30 days.
Sponsoring has no effect on approval or on where your work sits in the feed. Sponsors do earn sponsor badges, which count on the leaderboard like any other badge.
Found work
Editors also add outstanding work they find themselves. Those pages name the maker first, say plainly that the maker didn’t submit it, and carry links to claim the work or have it removed.
Colors
The palette on each project page is measured from the image’s own pixels by a simple counting routine in your browser. It isn’t an AI model.
Rights and removals
The work belongs to the people who made it.
Credit. Every piece is credited to its maker and links back to where it came from. If a credit is missing or wrong, tell us and we’ll correct it.
Removal. If you made something in the Archive and want it taken down, it comes down, no reason needed. Delete your own posts from the project page, or use Request removal on work our editors added.
Claiming your work. If editors added something you made, use “Made this? Claim it” on its page. Once you have an account, an editor moves the piece to your profile.
Submissions. Submitting work doesn’t transfer any rights. You confirm that you made it, or that you have permission to submit it.