As with any DIY project, the majority of the tools in the ‘starter kit’ consists of odds and ends from around the house. For Plates, a faded plastic folder turned out to be one of the ‘tools’ that stuck around since the maiden issue—compiled in this very folder in 2018, edited and passed on to various individuals for feedback for nearly a year.
However, I never actually noticed the regularity and prominence of the green folder itself. It was always just “that folder”. A shell to hold together pages for review. But Plates’ keen eye (and fittingly so) proofreader, Jovy Low, who has been a supporter of this independent food culture magazine long before a flatplan for Rice was even drafted, pointed this out in our last—and unknowingly final (for now)—meeting before the nation went into snap lockdown for the fourth time.
The folder (a.k.a “the book” in The Devil Wears Prada) is one the earliest visual drafts of any issue of the magazine. Bootstrapper budget permitting, printed in full colour on a home printer, and compiled into a clear sleeve folder to trial run for its readability, flipability, layout and flow. Personally, it’s a lot easier to deal with a printed copy in terms of proofreading and marking up edits.
The green folder—while it was carelessly revealed to and shared with almost anyone and everyone in search of reassurance and approval during the magazine’s earliest work-in-progress stages in 2018/19—is now only shared with the trusted ones. The ones who Plates was truly created for. The ones who sought to wander beyond comfort zones and wondered about issues unknown. The ones who embrace instead of berate. The ones who seek to read deeply in order to understand, instead of merely skimming to click and share.
No longer is the green folder shared with self-appointed critics. As Seth Godin has said in many variations, “Thank you [for your unsolicited feedback]. But it’s not for you.”
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If you’re keen to read deeply and are open to exploring underreported narratives of food and culture from a non-Eurocentric lens, consider adding one of these Plates to your media diet.
