Short answers, pulled from the story.
Akihiko Yoshida is a Japanese video game artist born in 1967. He is known for his work on titles including Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIV, and Nier: Automata, among more than three dozen credited projects spanning 1987 to 2023.
Yoshida joined Square in 1995, before the company merged with Enix. He left Square Enix in September 2013 and subsequently worked as a freelancer before becoming company director of CyDesignation in October 2014.
CyDesignation is a subsidiary of Cygames. Yoshida became its company director in October 2014 after leaving Square Enix and working as a freelancer.
Vaan was initially designed as rugged and tough, but Yoshida revised the character to be younger and thinner after considering the demographics of the Final Fantasy audience. After motion capture and voice recording by Kohei Takeda, the final character was slightly less effeminate than the revised design.
Yoshida designed the original characters for Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, released in 2018. The film was the directorial debut of screenwriter Mari Okada.
Kotaku cited Yoshida as a "fantastic" artist. IGN described his work on Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII as "brilliant" and "refined".