[Foodstamp]

I agree with you on that, and the more i look at the concept art, the more I agree it could have been done a lot better, even for the end style they are going for. Maybe it is like sombre said and they were under a ridiculous deadline, or maybe the guy doing the concept art normally doesn't do that kind of stuff.

I think I know which guy is doing it, if you go to stardock's website, there is a gallery of guys working on games, and one of the guys is working on 2d icons that look similar in style to this concept art. Maybe they told him to do it even though it is not his normal field of expertise?