I love all of the Food items, so my designs generally have a lot of food. My personal taste in design falls within the elegant/antique type of style, so I use a lot of rococo/regal/etc type of items. In terms of public buildings, I like to make them fairly realistic without much of a themed style.
My local stores didn't stock them on release day, instead it looks like everyone is waiting a few days before putting them out. I went to the Target by my house today and they had just put out some. There were about 15 packs on the shelf and I just bought two. I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to...
For a Villager's home, it usually takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to design everything. Sometimes less. Usually it's the main buildings that can take me longer.