Cards by James Turner: TCG Illustrator Guide

James Turner, born 1978, is a British people graphic designer who worked at Game Freak. In 2010, he became the first Westerner to officially design Pokémon.

Turner designed Pokémon for Black and White, X and Y, Sun and Moon, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and Sword and Shield; he was also the Art Director for the latter. Additionally, he directed the 2012 Nintendo 3DS eShop title HarmoKnight and the 2015 video game published by Sega, Tembo the Badass Elephant.

Before joining Game Freak, James Turner worked for eight years at Genius Sonority, and was credited under the name Jamie Turner (Japanese: ジェイミー・ターナー). The first game he worked on at this company was Pokémon Colosseum, for which Turner was responsible for the game's battle effects, battle camera, and cutscenes. For Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Turner finalized Shadow Lugia based on various initial sketches of the design drawn by Hiromoto-SIN-ichi, which began after the conceptualization of the core game. Turner designed all the characters for Battle Revolution and oversaw the designs of the different outfits. He would then leave Genius Sonority to apply for another job, landing a position at GAME FREAK before the release of Pokémon Black and White. During his interview, Turner claimed that he was required to design a Pokémon on the spot as part of the interview process. Although the moment was too fleeting to come up with a fully-fledged Pokémon with a backstory, Turner has mentioned that this design was originally a ghostly tree, which would later go on to spark the idea for the Phantump family in Pokémon X and Y.