Ryan Church Ryan Michael Church is a Hollywood film concept artist who worked on . As the film ' s concept designer , Church was the one primarily working on the updated design for the . He worked on " Star Trek " from April 2007 through January 2008 . He then worked as Concept Illustrator on the sequel between and . Born in Long Beach , California , Church was taught how to draw by his industrial designer father when he was a child . He attended the University of California , Los Angeles while honing his design skills by taking night classes at the Art Center College of Design . In 1994 , he began attending the Art Center full - time , ultimately graduating " with honors as a Transportation Design major with emphasis on Entertainment Design " . From June 1998 through April 2005 Church was Senior Art Director at Industrial Light & Magic . While there , he supervised concept designs for " Star Wars : Episode II – Attack of the Clones " ( 2002 ) and " Star Wars : Episode III – Revenge of the Sith " ( 2005 ) and did creature designs for the remake of " War of the Worlds " ( 2005 ) . He then moved to Los Angeles , where he did design work on the comic adaptation " Transformers " ( 2007 ) , which , like " Star Trek " , was written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci . He also did concept art for the film " Outlander " ( 2008 ) , starring Ron Perlman . For " Star Wars : Episode II – Attack of the Clones " , Church received a Visual Effects Society Award nomination in 2003 in the category Best Effects Art Direction in a Motion Picture , shared with Alex Jaeger and Erik Tiemens . " Star Trek " marked the second time Church has worked with fellow concept artist James Clyne . The two previously worked together on ' s " Avatar " ( 2009 ) , which stars Zoë Saldana and for which he won an ADG Excellence in Production Design Award in the category Fatansy Film in 2010 . He worked on the sequels " Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen " ( 2009 ) and " Transformers : Dark of the Moon " ( 2011 ) , the science fiction adventure " John Carter " ( 2012 ) , and the thriller " Zero Dark Thirty " ( 2012 ) for which he received his third ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nomination in the category Contemporary Film . Other projects include the science fiction sequel " TRON : Legacy " ( 2010 ) , the television series " Falling Skies " ( 2011 ) , the science fiction drama " Real Steel " ( 2011 ) , J . J . Abrams ' mystery thriller " Super 8 " ( 2011 ) , and the fantasy sequel " Thor : The Dark World " ( 2013 , starring Chris Hemsworth ) . More recent work includes the television documentary " Cosmos : A SpaceTime Odyssey " ( 2014 ) , the remake " Godzilla " ( 2014 ) , the science fiction sequel " Transformers : Age of Extinction " ( 2014 ) , Brad Bird ' s science fiction adventure " Tomorrowland " ( 2015 , written and produced by Damon Lindelof , produced by Jeffrey Chernov , music by Michael Giacchino , and production design by Scott Chambliss ) , and the upcoming video game " Star Citizen " . " Star Trek " awards . ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards nominations . Church received ADG Excellence in Production Design Award nominations as Illustrator in the category Fantasy Film