yuval Haker Animation Director & Illustrator

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Netflix

The Mind, Explained

About

I was the lead motion designer on Vox’s mini-series The Mind, Explained, which was even nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction. The biggest challenge (and most fun part) was taking emotional and often abstract psychological ideas and making them feel clear while still weaving in the more “researchy” side of the series, all within one coherent visual world across each 20-minute episode.

Episode 1
Memory

For “Memory,” I used a hazy, grainy illustration style to show how slippery recollection can be. The episode opens with a flowing surreal sequence of people recalling their 9/11 experiences, then we snap back to reality and the viewer sees how memories can shift and blur over time.

Episode 3
Anxiety

I worked with my producer Adam Cole to turn the human body into a pinball machine, with a pinball shooting out of the amygdala and bouncing through mechanical-y organs. I also added unexpected animated overlays to the interview footage to highlight and express the ideas interviewees were explaining.

Episode 5
Psychedelics

This episode let us get even weirder as we leaned into animated morph transitions and blended the data visuals with the surreal full-frame animation so that charts and graphs became part of the psychedelic trip! My favorite moment was animating Michael Pollan’s story about listening to a Bach piece and experiencing all his senses merge as he felt inside the music.

Bonus
content

Shortly after the show came out, I got a DM on Instagram from a musician telling me he saw the thumbnail on Netflix and was inspired to get my drawing as a tattoo!

Credits

Design and animation

Yuval Haker

Art Direction
Rubab Shakir

Producer
Adam Cole

Awards

41st News and Documentary Emmy Awards

Nominee, Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction