Liquid Treat

Gary Baseman's first major museum exhibition, on view through August 18 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, is a fun house full of paintings, photographs, toys, sketchbooks, and videos. More than 300 artworks and objects are installed in thematic "rooms" of a gallery designed to evoke Baseman's childhood home, complete with family photos, home movies, and vintage furnishings. The creative exuberance of "Gary Baseman: The Door Is Always Open" reflects his boundary-dissolving approach. Says Baseman, "I see myself as an artist who likes to do everything -- all the time."

Acclaimed illustrator Christoph Niemann (Abstract City, I LEGO N.Y.) gets interactive with Petting Zoo, a new app (for iPhones, iPads and now Android devices) that puts a high-tech twist on hand-drawn animation. Users of all ages can swipe and tap their way through the interactive picture book of 21 unconventional animals, from breakdancing dogs to elastic-limbed rabbits. Says Niemann of each creature in his animated menagerie, "You can slowly approach it, touch it, and it will do something unpredictable, but most likely something fun and adorable."

Curious about typographical trends? Check out Typograph, an interactive database cataloging 30 years of typography. The task of tracking the popularity of typefaces began as a hobby for Niko Skourtis, who later turned it into his undergraduate graphic design thesis at California College of the Arts and ultimately, a public website that makes the archive available to everyone. An assortment of stunning charts, graphs and timelines presents each typeface that appears in the Type Directors Club annuals and its relative frequency.

Get your craft on with For the Makers, which delivers DIY tutorials to your inbox and hand-selected materials to your doorstep. "It’s one part magazine, one part coolest craft store ever," say founders Katie Covington and Janet Crowther, who honed their sourcing skills during stints at companies such as Kate Spade and Anthropologie. "We search high and low for materials you can't find anywhere else, and when we can't find it we have it made." At $29-per-month, For the Makers will dispatch to your doorstep materials for four projects that range from jewelry and wearable accessories to home and paper goods, along with access to tutorials from expert designers.

Follow the history of color photography from the 1907 introduction of the first commercially available color photographic process (the autochrome) through 1981, when a published survey signified the widespread acceptance of contemporary art photography in color, in "Color Rush," a Stieglitz-to-Sherman exhibition on view through May 19 at the Milwaukee Art Museum. "Lisa Hostetler and I set out to rectify the problematic -- if prevailing -- notion that color photography prior to the 1970s was either amateur or commercial and only recognized as such," says co-curator Katherine Bussard. "The historical reality was never that simple, never so definitive.” Can't make it to Milwaukee? Pick up the stunning catalogue, out this month from Aperture.

Take type into your own hands with Draw Your Own Alphabets, new from Princeton Architectural Press. UK-based writer and designer Tony Seddon walks you through the process of creating hand-lettered fonts that are sure to jump off the screen (or page) and offers 30 inspirational examples of custom-drawn alphabets, from Control Chaos and Knit to Hairy Beast and Spaghetti Junction. Lest your lettering remain in the sketched stage, Seddon also includes a technical section -- on scanning, uploading and preparing artwork for print -- and a primer on the myriad applications for your personal alphabets.