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Ok all, so recently I've toyed with and am even in the preliminaries of designing my own cross stitch design (first of many hopefully).
I was reading some advice of a blog and one of the tidbits was to gauge what Stitchers want to see in their patterns/designs. So I'm casting a net out here for anyone willing to respond with input.
What's your desired cross stitch theme?
What makes you drawn to certain patterns?
What do you dislike about some patterns?

Thank you for all input!

I like impressionists works, florals, seascapes, and Disney (big surprise) - it just depends on my mood. But, sometimes I get tired of 20 or 30 tweeded colors (or even more) in confetti blocks - you just can't get through those very quickly. I'd like to see more patterns that are simpler with larger color blocks that still don't look juvenile. So...no challenge there, right?

I am drawn to a wide variety of themes, I love whimsical, steampunk, day of the dead, oriental, flowers, modern,seascapes..loads of designs in fact there isn't much I don't like!

I like a wide range of things. The pictures we have up on the walls at home are mostly wildlife images (David Shepherd & Ian Kent). The result is I prefer to stitch up photos or sci-fi/fantasy images. Something out of the run of the usual. I revolt at 'cute' & 'twee' unless it's cats, and I like it to be challenging, so not samplers that could have been done by a Victorian 9 year old girl - can you imagine proudly presenting your sampler to a visitor, puffing out your chest & saying "Look at this, I'm so proud of it. It looks like it could have been done by a 9 year old, 150 years ago.". My imagination stutters at that thought.

Steam punk is nice, I enjoy sci-fi/fantasy artwork (Rodney Matthews/Michael Whelan), and seem to like darker, post apocalyptic images as well. I like Luis Royo images, and am in the process of stitching up my second.

What do I like from my charts?
Simple layout, booklet format, pdf or paper option, title page, colour and monochrome chart, with simple key on the chart page. Skein list, number of stitches, breakdown of which stitches are used on each page of the chart (so I don't have to buy all skeins at the start for a huge chart), which blend components are used on each page (once again, so I don't have to buy all skeins at the start for a huge chart), separate chart for back stitches (so it doesn't clutter up the main chart), fabric description & full size colour mock-up OF THE CHARTED IMAGE (not the original) so I know what it should look like when finished. An index is good too.
Basically, what I like is in my charting program, as it was the only way to get it all, with the added bonus of getting it in a format I like.

Regards,

Richard.

I love butterflies and I would love them to be colorful!

I like birds and animals, but they have to be realistic....no big bug eyed cute stuff.
I like buildings and scenery.

As for fairies or fantasy or Huge HAED style designs I like to see what other stitchers can achieve with these designs just don't want to do them myself.