Stickie,
The points you raised were difficult ones and led to a great deal of internal discussion amongst those of us behind this contest. Several people believe that you are completely wrong, but that there is no point attempting to discuss this with you because of your clear investment in your position. Others believe that you have raised some valid points about the early rankings of your submissions setting the tones for color, font, etc..
I won't waste your time with the full content of these discussions, except to say that we have altered the way that we will handle contest like this one in the future. I can additionally say that we agree with you on one point. We do feel that the specific rules of this site, especially when followed as suggested, (early and regular ranking being the biggest issue, but not allowing second or third place individuals to further submit any entries in the back end of the contest may have complicated things), are what seem to have led to your complaint.
Beyond that, there is nothing further we can say.
In the future, we will reserve any active ranking of submissions for the first several days, specifically to avoid the problems you raise. It is all we believe we can do from our side of this effort.
On a personal note, I would like to personally apologize for the very late response. I was not authorized to say anything until today, (I suspect in response to your latest statement).