I try to go for character concepts that I have in my head at the moment, usually something not normally seen in action adventure games, protagonists or otherwise when I'm not trying to recreate looks from TV show characters.
For example:Blue beehive hair-do+solid green women's dress+red beaded necklace+stud earrings+solid red women's high heels.
Whether the character is portly Jamaican woman with dreadlocks, sandals, green tinted shades, a red,black and green vest and leather pants, a muscle-bound yet heavy set woman who looks to be a mix of Caucasian and Asian with short pink and white to match her ensemble of pink and white biker gear and white and pink leather chaps-g-string combo ensemble and favors using a katana while riding motor cycles or thin Hispanic man with a thick mustache who wears a business woman's attire and a sombrero, going for anybody who looks as if they could have been used in the promotional materials (even in Saint's Row 1, I just picked a black man with an afro and an all-black leather outfit)feels like a waste of the character creation mode's potential.