Don't have a favourite designer, they have all made good and bad games.
I find the code is just as important as the design and in many ways it is more important than the design.

+1. Design is worthless without completed code. Any machine is little more than a colourful paperweight/jukebox without it.

Everyone gets so hung up on this obsession with who is designing ("oooh its a Borgy pin definately buying now,lolololol") rather than assessing the design itself on its own merits.