I've been playing GalCiv 2 for quite awhile, and in the original game I had many interesting designs (though unfortunately deleted.)
After my first sandbox game in the Dark Avatar Expansion, I figured I should share the noteworthy designs I made, plus some words on their intent.
As far as my goals when creating ships. I'm pretty open, I look into the ships function, or just what I feel for at the moment, but I suppose my basic theme is elegance.
The "Concordia II" Class Destroyer and "Hood Mk II" Class Corvette 
Basic gun ships, focused mostly on offense and to support the larger cruisers and battleships. Usually my smaller ships carry a different type of weapon than the capital ships.
As far as design, the Concordia was make with less than 10 parts, with only 2 part serving as the base of it's hull. For corvette (tiny) ships, I generally just add wings to make it look more like a fighter.
The "Pathfinder" Class Destroyer
This is a rather complex design where I put function above form here. I generally don't like the small hulls provided because they just don't seem as malleable as their larger cousins. But anyway, the Pathfinder is unique because it's the first combat design to have a significant sensor capability (the reason for the 3 "dishes" on it's rear) while retaining a respectable offense and defense.
The "Keyhole" Class Sensor Ship. 
It's something I discovered rather late that the large (but fragile) freighters make excellent sensor ships. This is the first design I made with the new Dark Avatar parts. I wanted this ship to be austere in design with the radar arrays a major part. Pretty much what a "REAL" sensor ship might look if built.
The "Salvation" Class Cruiser 
THIS is my favorite class. They've been a mainstay of my fleets since I first started playing, with the general theme of 2 nacelles front and back largely prevailing throughout it's history. It was originally an all attack ship, but ultimately took on defenses like it's more conventional cousins. It's usual weapon focus is beams.
It's name, and general knack, came from it's first unveiling in the first mission (and the first playing) of the original Dread Lords campaign. I was barely surviving with the ships I had, mostly supported by a large military base. The Drengin were far ahead of my tech wise. But a lucky tech steal of Plasma II allowed me to even the field and lead to the production of this class, which saved the day.
Salvations have a knack of doing that, and one noteworthy ship, ultimately named "TNS Messiah" became such a famed brawler in fleets it had enough hit points to face down a ship 5 times it's size.
The "Centurion" Class Battleship 
This ship, my first large in the past sandbox game, plesantly suprised me. I was struggling with this design (using the most basic root). But the end result is what I call ELEGANCE! It's sleek design just oozes powers, and with 26 in mass drivers and a mixed shield and armor defense, looks can kill with this ship.
My only regret (and hope for stardock) it that in the battle screen it looks pretty small, only slightly longer than the Salvations. I would like for Stardock to add a feature that tells you the length of a design while in construction.
God Bless
PegasusJF
