Production designer Herman Zimmerman used a similar design style for all the control panels and consoles on the Enterprise-E. It helped unify all of the elements on his ship. Still, Zimmerman knew that consoles on the bridge set would be seen more, and thus justified a little extra time and money. That's why these bridge consoles tend to have a more sculptural design and a little more elegance than consoles that were primarily made for background use on other sets.