When the announcement of this contest arrived, I could not wait to see the results. Overall the collection is a fantastic body of work.
Pat, you are right about the submissions sharing common design elements. I definitely noticed the same thing. Several banners or ribbons, wings, shields, etc.
Since the contest was going to include what I considered to be very talented individuals, I wanted to design one of my own and see how they compared. Just as Pat mentioned...common elements.
It is very hard to chose a winner. I'm leaning towards Post 12 for originality.
I really enjoy watching these contests. They are very inspirational.