Thanks guys, this is all super helpful.
Malenko,
I like the sound of your ideas and I kind of get it but it's kind of fuzzy in my mind how that would look. If you really wouldn't mind putting some examples together I would be so grateful! You guys can see I'm pretty terrible at this creative stuff.
Yamatetsu,
I agree, too much to look at can be overwhelming. I want to make this a little cleaner and easier on the eyes. I sent the artist a bunch of ideas, basically everything in this thread saying, here's an idea, do you think this would look good? I realized I'm not being helpful by sending him so many ideas so I replied again with the all control panels and told him that I'd like him to hold off on making any changes so that I don't waste his time because I see the problem with the CP front not fitting well with the rest of the art and that the CP needs something more. So I asked him to give me a couple days to get my ideas together so that I don't send him in the wrong direction, waste his time, etc... Thanks again for getting me set straight.