Thanks David! Great suggestions. More than one teacher has asked for the edit button to be always visible. I will see what I can do with that.
The new theme is called Fordson. You can grab copies of the work here https://github.com/kennibc/moodle-theme_fordson
It's not anywhere near ready and the default presets are not pretty at all but it has the custom image, custom login page image, and background image. It has a navigation icon bar, marketing tiles, custom textbox and alert box.
You will find setup and initial results for Fordson to be pretty great and straightforward. Whereas with Pioneer we went feature happy, Fordson will be more like Evolve-D and simple to setup and use.
I'll see what I can do with your suggestions.