How does one find the hidden treasures, whether in travel, literature or art? That remains a key question.
There are publications that make this kind of discovery their mission. They exist to say “Look at this”, “Read this”, “Go here instead”. But they are, by their very nature, niche. Even the best of them (The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, Atlas Obscura), are oft-cited, talked-about, but not widely read.
This is where Paper Planes steps in. The website was launched in 2014, as a source of niche, independent magazines from around the world. Founder Nupur Joshi Thanks, 41, a former lawyer, sourced magazines such as The Paris Review (a quarterly literary magazine published in the US), Cabana (a bi-annual interiors and decorative arts magazine published in Italy) and Monocle (a global affairs and lifestyle magazine from New York), for subscribers.
The company initially offered curation, sending subscribers surprise magazines based on their stated interests. Eventually, it turned into an e-store where readers could purchase individual issues or annual subscriptions to titles.
Amid her curating, meanwhile, Joshi Thanks became intrigued by the idea of building a magazine of her own, that would focus on how design informs everyday life. Her target reader would be the non-designer and non-architect; anyone, like her, with an interest in the subject.
Earlier this month, Paper Planes the magazine won a Webby People’s Voice Award, India’s first Webby in the Magazine category. The Webbys were launched in 1996 by the New York-based International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences to honour excellence on the internet, under scores of categories. Publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post and National Public Radio have won Webbys over the years.
“Winning has validated the direction we took with the publication,” Joshi Thanks says. “We waited so long for the right opportunities to come our way. Now the publication is getting the recognition that we think it deserves.”
Paper Planes is free. It is sustained partly by revenue from the company’s creative agency, which was launched in 2021. In its current form (the digital magazine was launched in 2018 and redesigned in December 2021), Paper Planes offers one hyper-focussed story a week, and one web-comic strip each month.
The story series, Local Attractions, presents architectural wonders from across India, explained in articles that explore their history and cultural context, alongside photographs. Here, one may find stories on the origins of the terracotta horses strewn across the sacred groves of Bankura in West Bengal, the 19th-century blue-and-white azulejos (or hand-painted, glazed ceramic tiles) at the Central Library in Goa, or the colonial influence at temples in Mumbai’s Kamathipura (some have Indo-Saracenic arches reminiscent of the erstwhile Victoria Terminus).
The comic series, Thinking Aloud, “was envisioned as a way for us to introduce our readers to the work of visual artists from across India, by offering them a chance to tell a story,” says editorial director Fabiola Monteiro, 29. It now features slice-of-life web comics on family life, the difficulties of adulting, and more serious issues such as post-partum body-shaming, by independent artists such as Dinesh Pasupathyrajan, Sabari Venu and Samidha Gunjal.
“Many of these stories are incredibly personal, like the one about talking to a parent about being queer, or what it was like to graduate online during the pandemic,” says Joshi Thanks. “And since the idea is to introduce readers to new artists, we’ve tried to work with a new artist each time.”
Writers are drawn from a wide and diversely qualified pool too, and include local municipal officials, students of architecture and design, conservation architects, type designers, photographers and filmmakers.
The idea is for Local Attractions to double as a travel resource. “It’s when people are travelling that they notice design and architecture the most,” says Joshi Thanks. “Whether they are travelling to discover their own cities, or different cities, for business or pleasure, that’s when people roll down their windows and look around.”
What’s next? Perhaps reviving the offline events held under the banner Oddly Enough. “Every quarter we would get people from across different disciplines to talk about how design informs their world,” says Joshi Thanks. “All in all, I think we found a sweet spot to really create opportunities. While it will always be a challenge for media to survive, right now things are looking good.”
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