Ken Sugimori is the character designer and director for the Pokémon franchise. The reason why I picked Ken Sugimori is because I’m a big fan of the Pokémon franchise. As someone who likes to draw myself I’m interested and love the Pokémon artwork. Like most people at my age Pokémon is one of the cartoons we watched during our childhood. The different and unique creatures they call Pokémon caught the hearts of many including myself.

                  Ken Sugimori was born on January 27,1966 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a Japanese video game designer, illustrator, manga artist, and director and designed the first 151 Pokémon with Atsuko Nishida, Matofomi Fujiwara, and Shigeki Morimoto. Sugimori illustrated a game fanzine called game freak which had been started by Satoshi Tajiri. On April 26,1989, Tajiri and Sugimori started a video game development company with the same name. Game Freak Inc. is a Japanese video game developer, best known as the primary developer of the Pokémon series of role-playing video games published by Nintendo. One of Game Freak’s most popular series is Pokémon (the Japanese name is Pocket Monster) is published and distributed respectively by the Pokémon Company and Nintendo worldwide.

                He has worked on the various Pokémon movies, trading cards, and other games. His inspiration for drawing Pokémon was through observing animals in aquariums and zoos. When designing a new Pokémon, Sugimori stated that “ I do feel that I always want to show new Pokémon that people have never seen before. To do that, I think of ways that I can surprise the players.” When he begins drawing a new character, his process normally involves making a rough sketch, then tracing it onto film paper while polishing it and making the illustration more professional looking. After that, he draws the character many times, changing its proportions until he is satisfied. Sugimori’s change of style over the years has been noticeable. Initially, he used a stiff, lightly shaded style using watercolors that was very reminiscent of Akira Toriyama’s visual style, particularly that from 1989-onwards. However, his now digitally-produced drawings of people and creatures have gradually gained more muscle definition, significantly rounder corners, heavier shading, and more natural and fluid poses

Video games
Pokémon series: art director and character designer
Mendel Palace: character design
Smart Ball: character design
Jelly Boy 2 (canceled game): character designer
Drill Dozer: director and game design
Pulseman: character designer and artist
BUSHI Seiryūden Futari no Yūsya:character design
Tembo the Badass Elephant – advisor

Card games
Pokémon Trading Card Game: main card artist

Pokémon (anime): character design
Pokémon: The First Movie: original character design
Pokémon: The Movie 2000: original character design
Pokémon 3: The Movie: conceptual character artist
Pokémon 4Ever: conceptual character artist
Pokémon Heroes: conceptual character artist

Manga
Quinty (Mendel Palace)
Jerry Boy (Smart Ball)
Valkyrie no Bōken Gaiden: Futari no Megami (The Adventure of Valkyrie Gaiden: Two Goddess)
Screw Breaker Gōshin Dorirurero (Drill Dozer)
Pokémon Fushigi no Danjon Toki no Tankentai Yami no Tankentai (Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness)
Shin Maido Osawagaseshimasu

One of the first game made by both Ken Sugimori and Satoshi Tajiri is an arcade game design idea to Namico and produced Mendal Palace also goes by the name Quinty in Japan.