Who was the principal character designer for the original Pokémon games?

Ken Sugimori was the principal character designer for the original Pokémon games.

Sugimori worked closely with Satoshi Tajiri, whom he met through the Game Freak magazine. When Game Freak became a development company, Sugimori became its illustrator and later handled much of Pokémon’s graphics and character design.

He designed a large majority of the first 151 Pokémon, working with other artists including Atsuko Nishida, Motofumi Fujiwara, Shigeki Morimoto, and Satoshi Ota. His watercolor-like official illustrations became one of the franchise’s defining visual signatures.

Atsuko Nishida is specifically credited with designing Pikachu, so she is sometimes incorrectly named as the designer of all the original Pokémon. Sugimori’s role was broader: he was the main art director and character designer for the first games and their official artwork.