Congrats to the winner. I admit to feeling kind of strange about this.
On one hand, the Green Album cover designer had a very similar idea to mine and somehow this was closely linked to the tee-shirt contest. It could be pure coincidence and I can understand why they wouldn't want competing visuals for their package deal. It's a compliment that the official album cover designer and I have the same thoughts on composition so I'll take that.
On the other hand, I completely expected the *blue balloon* design to be the selected winner over mine. It's fun, beautifully drawn and is printed on a base-color. It's truly the most marketable of the final contestants. I've sold shirts in shops before and white ones are a tougher sell. That one would have moved a lot of units.
The fact that the stripes holds the highest number of total votes on the Threadless site makes it appear that either the contestant or the site padded the votes. That's 2049 total for him that came all at once, 1722 for mine that was up for a week longer and 1028 for the third place design. Someone really wanted that Benetton Muppet stripes design to win, but the votes didn't matter anyway. I'm disappointed to have lost, but I'm a little offended to have lost to that particular design for both aesthetic grounds and its swift last-minute rise to the top. I'd feel better having been edged-out by any of the other top contestants. Ultimately Threadless and Disney pick the winner and that's the way they decided to go with it so I concede to their wishes.
I've always maintained the Lew Zeland was my favorite over all of them! Thanks everybody for the support. Once Threadless makes the announcement on their site I will figure out the best method to distribute my design if you guys want it.