You have to understand that involving with a project like Gnome it is a step by step process. No matter how talented designer and programmer you are, your first contribution can’t be, “Lets re-design the Gnome”. In that case, is better to make your own Mint/Cinammon 🙂
You have to prove your value and earn the respect from other developers with small contributions at first and sooner or later you will progress in the point that you can deploy your original thoughts of how a modern OS should be.
My suggestion? If they ignoring you then just ignoring them back. My point is that you can help Gnome indirectly by building your very own Applications for it. For me this is your best option, because you can design whatever you want and later on you can involve with core Gnome (if you want), having a nice experience and work to show.