Gundam doesn't have the same mecha designers for all series. Okawara is supposed to do supervision, like Tomino is supposed to do supervision of every Gundam story.
AU series surely seem to recicle the same designs unlike UC designs which all have something different from each other. Anyway, I think Izubuchi is the best mecha designer after Kawamori, while I despise Katoki and, to a certain extent, even Nagano style.
FV
Well how was Kawamori's decision not to do a lot of Macross series self-defeating?