Lee Cole Carole Lee Cole , usually credited as " Lee Cole " , was a graphic designer on " " , its successor and . She also wrote a few books on " Star Trek " . Cole was brought in on the " Phase II " television project in by Art Director Joe Jennings , with the express intent to redesign the bridge instruments and their lay - out of the refit - , and stayed on when the project was upgraded to a movie project in November . ( " " , p . 28 ) She recalled wanting to do a different style bridge as was ultimately seen on screen , " " We did a lot of research in getting the bridge together . We talked to a lot of scientists about what advancements might occur by the 23rd century . But despite our research and our contact with all these brilliant minds , we often couldn ' t use our findings for the film . I had originally designed the Enterprise consoles to be entirely smooth . They were to be heat sensitive , so a crew member could execute his or her duties by simply waving a hand over the console . No buttons or anything would protrude from the surface . But Robert Wise said , and rightly so , that those sort of designs just wouldn ' t be dramatic . In his director ' s role he explained that , in a really dramatic sense when Sulu ' s hand is grasping at this lever in an attempt to save the ship , it wouldn ' t be very exciting not to have a lever there for him to grasp . So we had to violate some scientific principles in order to come up with some big knobs and levers . " " ( " Future Life " , issue 17 , p . 45 ) Cole ' s " entirely smooth " consoles eventually did turn up ten years later in . Much of her work , Lee laid out in the " " Enterprise " Flight Manual " , an internal studio guide intended to instruct the stage effects technicians on wiring up all of the work station ' s control panel backlits , working switches and indicator lights , as well as giving the actors basic button - pushing lessons on the bridge sets . Aside from the visual look of the bridge instruments , she also designed all the Federation signage seen throughout the movie . She repeated her role and work for " The Wrath of Khan " , and has published her " Motion Picture " signage graphics work in a spin - off sticker book . Cole ' s role on the two " Star Trek " features was exactly the same as that of Michael Okuda , who , now titled Scenic Artist , followed in Cole ' s footsteps from onward for the remainder of the entire live - action franchise set in the prime universe , and who has , like Cole , published a sticker - book with his signage graphics . Cole has two in - universe characters named after her , both , a 22nd and a 23rd century one , named L . Cole . Career outside " Star Trek " . A University of California , Los Angeles graduate , Lee Cole has had a relatively modest designer career in the motion picture industry . " Phase II " has been her first recorded credit as such . She was singularly well suited for her assignment though , designing graphics and laying out the bridge design , as she had prior to her first motion picture project worked for the TRW Inc . aerospace corporation and Rockwell International , designing circuitry for nuclear submarines , and wiring on - board computers on the Apollo moon flights . ( " " , p . 86 ) Other motion picture productions she has worked upon afterwards as graphic designer included " The Creature Wasn ' t Nice " ( 1981 ) and " Spacehunter : Adventures in the Forbidden Zone " ( 1983 ) . As set designer she has worked intermittently for the industry with credits few and far apart and which consisted of " The Man Who Saw Tomorrow " ( 1981 ) , " Downtown " ( 1990 ) , " Terminator 2 : Judgment Day " , " Child ' s Play 3 " ( both 1991 ) , " Almost Blue " , " Wild Bill " ( both 1993 ) , " The Pest " ( 1997 ) , the television series " The Hughleys " ( 1999 ) and the 2001 movie " Scary Movie 2 " as her last recorded credit .