Yoshitaka Amano Yoshitaka Amano is an artist who designed many characters in the " Final Fantasy " series as well as for other series . He is a native of , Japan . Profile . His uniqueness in his designs are such that he does not design images directly for animation or comics . Amano ' s art revolves around the medium of printmaking . Printmaking involves processes such as carving wood and / or scoring copper plates , running ink , and transferring ink to paper . Aside from woodcut and copper plate prints , Amano also uses the method of lithography . He typically uses acrylics to color his prints , using an effect resembling watercolor , and many of his works are influenced by ukiyo - e aesthetics . His prints contrast to many modern Japanese designers in that his prints are made with smoother , flowing lines , especially when drawing hair , a characteristic that defies the stereotype of pointy , spiky hair used by other designers , which is also one of the reasons for the critique of the newer designers for Square Enix . To this day Amano has drawn and designed most of the main characters and prominent points in the iconic games of the series . Before beginning his career as a fantasy illustrator , having grown up reading Western super hero comics , Amano worked for Tatsunoko Production as a character designer for several of their early super hero anime , including " Science Ninja Team Gatchaman " , " Tekkaman the Space Knight " , and " Neo - Human Casshern " . Beginning in the ' 80s , he left the anime industry to illustrate novels , including several Japanese versions of Western heroic fantasy series , as well as early volumes of " Guin Saga " and the ongoing " Vampire Hunter D " series , which he still illustrates . More recently , he has illustrated Neil Gaiman ' s " The Sandman : The Dream Hunters " , Greg Rucka ' s " Elektra and Wolverine : The Redeemer " , mink ' s " Shinjuku " , and his own " Hero " series . He has occasionally returned to working on anime , such as the surreal " Angel ' s Egg " , as well as experimental works such as " Fantascope : Tylostoma " , and the more mainstream " NY Salad : Vegetable Fairies " . In addition to the " Final Fantasy series " , he has also worked as character designer for the " Front Mission " game series , and " Kartia " . He has also appeared as the character Hiroshi in the live action movie " New Rose Hotel " . Works within the series . Amano was the lead character designer for many games in the series . He designed the characters and most of the enemies for " Final Fantasy " , " Final Fantasy II " , " Final Fantasy III " , " Final Fantasy IV " , " Final Fantasy V " , and " Final Fantasy VI " . He was also one of several designers for " Final Fantasy IX " . In " Final Fantasy VII " , " Final Fantasy VIII " , and " Final Fantasy X " , he also drew several pieces of art of the characters , for which he is credited as an Image Illustrator . His artworks for " Final Fantasy XII " can also be found in the " International Zodiac Job System Ultimania " . Amano also made the logos for all the main games in the series , as well as many of the spin - offs and sequels . Amano considers his work for the " Final Fantasy " series as the thing that made him famous , and when he thinks about what ' s important to him as an artist , the pieces that he has worked on for " Final Fantasy " come back to him . He has described an " interesting book that puts together the modern art history of Japan " that had one of his personal art pieces with several familiar " Final Fantasy " characters and illustrations spread across the piece , as " Final Fantasy " is very important to his career , not just in name , but also in terms of the visual pieces and art expression . The games are in development when the logo requests are sent to Amano without much documentation to go by . Amano then interprets the information available and tries to incorporate it and create an illustration out of it . As the logo art is based around a central concept , not much of the important aspects would drift or change significantly even if the logo is created early in production . Because the title logo is monochrome to a certain degree , Amano illustrates the logo as a standalone piece of art . Rather than receiving visuals , he creates the character illustrations from text - based information , like the age and the role they play . As he is not a character designer , but an illustrator , there are more instances where he has worked off text received from the development team . He has said that anything written in text builds and expands imagination , whereas visual assets to review or look at , would be " the end of it . " After Amano has drawn the logo art the actual logo is designed around it by the design team that chooses the color for the logo , among other aspects . Square Enix likes to reflect colors from the logo art within the key art . For example : The green and blue of the " Final Fantasy VII " , are also reflected in the Mako energy and Lifestream that play crucial roles in the game , and the tone of the key art .