Mister Phes

You do a mighty fine job with the old MS Paint, however any design we use will have to be vectorised in Adobe Illustrator of EPS format. Hopefully those who can vectorize MS Paint designs will present themselves soon - otherwise I'll have to do it myself.

I'm quite open to that approach for a military theme as it provides an alternative to the blue/red coat paradigm, but ultimately it comes down to a vote by the majority whether we pursue that direction. Which program do you use to make your decals?

This is an interesting and different direction to what we've seen previously - that could work well with a cape. It reminds me of the Dutch captains in Sid Meier's Pirates! Here's a screen shot ableit, not a very good pose for revealing the Dutch Captain's torso... However, I assume this is what you're going for....

Actually, there was a typographical error in the first post, it was supposed to read: Set suggestions will be taken from Saturday June 7 - there is currently no deadline. So we are very much still accepting new set suggestions and commentary - and you have provided some very interesting ideas and commentary, so keep it coming!

I'm not sure if you've been following, but we're designing a new LEGO Pirates Sub-Theme which we'll submit to the LEGO Group through their Ambassador Program when done. We've conceptualized a faction called the Haven Guard, which is basically a harbour patrol with a colonial Dutch influence who guard over the Merchant's Port van Brickhaven. We've been working on designs for flags and torsos, but with my 10+ years experience as a professional graphic designer I'm not confident the current designs have sufficient "WOW factor" to capture the LEGO Group's attention. So now I'm seeking highly experienced customizers who can design decals which reflect a contemporary LEGO design aesthetic. If that's you then don't hesitate to contribute ideas! I was attempting to get obtain a list of customizers to personally contact but advertising in the Minifig Customs Workshop shall indeed be my next step. Still, please continue to suggest customizers...

Just to clarify "background #5 actually has more votes (8) than background #1 (6 total with cannons) or #7 (7 total with cannons)" - do you mean "or #7 (7 total without cannons)" We'll be needing more designs then!

Not at this stage. At some point we'll need to vectorize the desgin and convert it to Illustrator or Photoshop format so I'm considering enlisting some experience customizers to get their opinions on the best way to proceed. They may even produce a unique design we haven't considered yet.

For easy comparison I've inserted the existing design which is similar into your post.

That's fine, we do need to make those cannons look a bit different so please do so...

Pretty much all that which you've mentioned except parts collecting and packaging. But decal design is most important at this stage.

That pretty much sums up purpose of the Merchants and the Haven Guard factions!

The point of choosing orange was to select a colour which hadn't be previously used.

You can't win either way, some said the brighter orange looked like a popsicle! But we did conduct a poll to determine the shade of orange, here is a 3D rendering by Yooha of the torsos in each shade of orange.

That statement is true for every aspect of this project however it's not a good attitude to possess. In order to sell our concept the aim is to produce a fully realised LEGO Pirate sub-theme, so we cannot adopt a "just submit whatever because the LEGO Group will change it" attitude as we cannot predict what the LEGO Group will do. We want to impress them with new ideas, no rehash what they've already done, and if we come up with something good enough, they may well use it as is, with little modification.

Yes, it's somewhat of a concern because of the similarity, but in the endeavour to be as democratic as possible, I was silly enough to allow the insignia in the poll! Everyone: you are permited to edit your post and change your votes! Plus you may submit upto THREE flags! vs We have already agreed the emblem on the Merchants flag should be the same as the emblem on the sail of the small vessel included with the Imperial Trading Post You may select this emblem for the Haven Guard flag or select an emblem you think will compliment it.

Who are the most experienced minifig customizers at Eurobricks? I.e. someone who design design a torso decal that looks like something the LEGO Group would release themselves? Ideally those who is interested in historic themes... particularly those relating to LEGO Pirates.

I agree although I'd go for the vertical stripes to further distinguish it form the Imperial Guards flag, I.e. So far the below flag has the most votes but the insignia is too similar to the Imperial Guard's flag for my liking. vs

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You seem to have a good grasp of how to turn these concepts into sets - if you've got any ideas you'd like to share for our Design a NEW LEGO Pirates Sub-Theme Ambassador project, feel free to post in the Set Suggestions thread. Anyway... Back to your MOC... There is a photo in your Flickr stream which I cannot directly post because sharing is disabled - but is this an armed hold-up?

A colonial harbour! Just what our Merchants and Haven Guard need! Got any experience building LEGO sets? I like how you've gone to the extra effort of removing the background and inserting something far more interesting. The Imperial Armada also has a very good presence in their need uniforms so that is very pleasing to see.

These blasted monkeys are running rampart! Send the Imperial Armada in to "clean" them up! By the way... Lovely archiecture in the background, which civilisation is responsible for building that?

How did the contest go?