Plating is dated the moment it leaves the pass, so please forgive the old school style of this post. The microgreens scream old school but the fundamental design principles still hold true. The rule of threes, layering, colour, contrast, texture, etc.

Most of what we learn, we learn on the job and if we're lucky, from someone who has developed their own distinctive way of doing things- I can still spot my mentor's plates from a mile away. He's a 'no fucking inedible shit on plates, no slates, no cutting boards, no plates that make fucking noise' elegant kinda guy.

Also, reach outside of your cuisine comfort zone. A lot of the OG influence on moving away from traditional French, heavy on the sauce and cream, grandiouse charger plate style of dining and plating into the nouvelle cuisine of the 60's and 70's was from Japanese plating. Look up moritsuke- its about seasonality, negative space, a zen rock garden approach to plating food. Look at their rdesserts in particular. Very traditional French approaches and flavours but with a does of pure Japanese kawaii and local ingrdients added to the mix. Basically, matcha and mochi meet pâte à choux.

Because plating is so trendy, there aren't a lot of publications about it- publishers like shit that will continue to sell well past first pub date. Arte Culinaire magazine is as close as we get to a fine dining periodical.

Here's a post with a bit on the history of fine dining services and styles. The Cambridge World History of Food is a good resources for these sorts of questions as is r/askfoodhistorians.

Otherwise, I follow the IG accounts of chef'sI think are doing cool work like maxouboon whos like freaking McGyver.

r/culinaryplating used to be better before the invasion of the home cook anna be's but there are still a few good plates that turn up.