Liquid Treat

Your weekend mission, if you choose to accept it: create a video that will be shown to a global audience in one of the world's leading art museums. YouTube and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation have joined forces to create YouTube Play, which aims "to discover and showcase the most exceptional talent working in the ever-expanding realm of online video." Anything goes, as long as it's creative, from animation and mini-documentaries to music videos and non-narrative hijinks. A jury of experts including Stefan Sagmeister and Animal Collective will select up to 20 videos to be presented at the Guggenheim in New York City in October, with simultaneous presentations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice. Ready to nominate your work and claim your rightful place in the art world? The deadline for submissions is Saturday, July 31. Only one video is allowed per person, so choose carefully—and creatively.

David Weidman is back! The octogenarian artist and designer who honed his whimsical style as a prominent Hollywood animator in the 1950s and 1960s has collaborated with trend emporium Urban Outfitters on a line of colorful home accessories. The collection of pillows and wall art featuring Weidman's vibrant, iconic, and rather trippy images debuts in Urban Outfitters stores this fall, and a few pieces are already available online. Those who prefer to get a closer look at Weidman's career, which ranged from printmaking and ceramics to typography and cartooning, should pick up The Whimsical Work of David Weidman—and Also Some Serious Ones, published last year by Gingko Press.

Craving a bit of order in a font-frenzied world? Bring out your scientific side with the Periodic Table of Typefaces, which replaces the chemical elements with today's most popular, influential, and notorious typefaces. Created by graphic designer Cam Wilde, the chart organizes 100 typefaces—from Adline (A) to Zapfino (Z)—into families and classes: sans-serif, serif, script, blackletter, glyphic, display, grotesque, realist, didone, garalde, geometric, humanist, slab-serif, and mixed. Typophiles can download and print their own copies of the wildly popular table or order one in the form of a poster, vinyl decal, t-shirt, or Moleskine cover. But beware of overanalyzing the relationship of the fonts with their corresponding elements. Says Wilde, "The fact that Helvetica is number one and matches up with Hydrogen's position is purely a nice coincidence."

Who needs clay or stone when you've got pencils? They're the medium of choice for South African-born, Massachusetts-based artist Jennifer Maestre, who transforms mass quantities of the familiar writing utensils into stunning, spiny sculptures with titles such as "Seethe" and "Chimera." Originally inspired by the form and function of sea urchins, her work evokes rare species discovered at the the bottom of a festively colored sea. Each sculpture begins with hundreds of pencils that Maestre cuts into one-inch square sections, before drilling a hole into each one, sharpening them, and sewing them together. "Paradox and surprise are integral in my choice of materials," she notes. "Pencils are common objects. Here, these anonymous objects become the structure."

Cartographic nostalgia only sounds like a psychiatric disorder. It's actually the specialty of SepiaTown, a site that aims to "to map a virtual past by collecting and mapping a vast collection of historical and vintage photographs, prints, film, audio, and other media." Think Google Earth meets a time machine. Visit SepiaTown to take a virtual tour of Paris past and present, stroll the streets of old Berlin, admire Boston circa 1850, or just search for vintage images of your hometown. Registered users of the free site can upload, map, and share historical images of their own from any given location and time period with other users around the world. According to the creators of SepiaTown, film and audio features will be added soon. Who said there's no future for the past?

Want to make sure your precious laptop survives your summer travels? Stave off computer snatchers with the Undercover Laptop Bag, a sturdy computer case disguised as a mailing envelope that has seen better days (complete with faux address labels and canceled stamps). Crafted of waterproof, tear-proof material that can be written on, the protective sleeve adjusts to fit laptops ranging from eight to 17 inches. And despite its shabby exterior, the case is lined in plush padding. A mini version is designed to safely and subtly hold phones and mp3 players. Be sure to avoid setting down your cleverly concealed gadget at the post office -- just in case.