Alex Jaeger Alexander " Alex " M . Jaeger is a long - time employee at Industrial Light & Magic ( ILM ) . He has worked on two thus far . First , he was the Visual Effects Art Director for concept design and animatics on . Over a decade later , he served as ILM ' s Visual Effects Art Director on ' s . On " First Contact " , Jaeger was principally responsible for the Borg battle at the beginning of the film . He designed several new CGI model s for the film , including the , , , and , the first one being his favorite . Jaeger was interviewed for the special feature " Industrial Light & Magic : The Next Generation " on the DVD of " First Contact " . Career . Having studied Automotive Design in Detroit for two years , Jaeger transferred to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh , after he got acquainted with the visual effects work of movie production illustrators like Syd Mead , Ron Cobb , and ILM ' s Joe Johnston of " Star Wars " fame , very much wanting to combine the two crafts and wanting to work in the motion picture industry . He later recalled , " " What I knew then of an artist was somebody who lives in a cruddy old loft in New York trying to sell a painting here and there . When I discovered the field of industrial design , I thought here ’ s a field that allows me to not only do artwork , but it ’ s practical artwork . I looked around , and didn ’ t just go into it blindly and said , hey , I ’ m going to be an artist . I actually looked for fields that would utilize the skills that I would need . " " Graduating in December 1994 , he was hired as model maker and concept / storyboard artist at ILM less than two months later . After being shown Jaeger ' s designer portfolio , Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll appointed Jaeger less than a year later as Visual Effects Art Director for the upcoming " First Contact " feature . Jaeger had only just turned 22 when he was offered the lofty position , one of the youngest to achieve such , and for some time has been very self - conscious of this fact : " " Now " First Contact " was my very first Art Directing job , before that I was a model maker in the ILM model shop . I was also only 22 years old at the time and was jumping head first into an already rich world deep in traditions fine artists and some hard science , so I was fully aware there were many eyes watching me very close . Waiting for me to fail . . . " " At a birthday party a year later , " " It was definitely a trial by fire , because I knew there were a lot of people who had gone through the proper channels and slaved their way up , and were looking at me with these heated eyes , saying , " Who are you and why are you doing this ? We ' re just waiting for you to fail ! " Mark Moore , my art department manager , saw the " 2 " and the " 3 " on the cake and said , " Hey , aren ' t those backwards ? " and I said , " What do you mean ? " He said , " Aren ' t you 32 ? " I told him , no , I was 23 , and he said " You are so fired ! ! " " " When Jaeger first joined ILM , he worked as a model maker on such films as " Congo " ( 1995 ) and " Mission : Impossible " ( 1996 ) . " First Contact " was his first project as a Visual Effects Art Director . Jaeger ' s other credits in this role have included " Starship Troopers " ( 1997 ) , the " Star Trek " parody " Galaxy Quest " ( 1999 ) , " Pearl Harbor " ( 2001 ) , and " Star Wars : Episode II – Attack of the Clones " ( 2002 ) . More recently , he worked on " The Island " ( 2005 ) , " Mission : Impossible III " ( 2006 ) , and " Transformers " ( 2007 ) , all of which were written by " Star Trek " scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci . Jaegar has also worked as a concept and storyboard artist for ILM on films such as " Men in Black " ( 1997 ) , " Spawn " ( 1997 , produced by Todd McFarlane ) , and " Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines " ( 2003 ) . In addition , he was lead concept designer on the 2003 film " Hulk " , which , like " Star Trek " , starred Eric Bana .