Focusing on food, culture, environment and personal stories, our content tackles various universal subjects within a distinct theme of sustainability. A major goal of Lagom is to provoke thought about the decisions we make when we buy, the realities of cost and consumption, prioritising sustainability in editorial.
True empowerment is rooted in integrity, in aligning our choices with our values. Our intent is to engage people from all disciplines, inspiring systems change. Lagom is produced and edited by co-founders Tracey Creed and Amandine Paniagua and built by Benoit Chabord and Eduardo Bruzzi.
We met seven years ago, flatting together. We created Lagom in 2018, born out of conversations, not as a trend but more as a reaction to what is happening globally and the systems in place that no longer serve us. We decided to start our own online magazine to create space for various niche topics and intercepting themes.
We felt it would be a worthwhile way to spend our spare time, so we added all of our experience together and just said–let’s do it. The project began taking space around our full-time jobs. For us, Lagom is our creative base, so our aesthetics, views and creative informs our website. We hope that it is a publication that many others can relate to.
lagom {adj.}
‘Lagom’ is a Swedish word with no direct English translation. Widely translated as “in moderation”, “in balance”, “perfect-simple”, and “suitable”, lagom loosely describes the concept of having just the right amount of something: not too little, not too much.
I am Amandine, co-founder of Lagom and a full-time graduate Architect, designing schools for the Ministry of Education at ASC Architects. Alongside my full-time work, I’ve spent the past four years writing, styling, modelling and publishing content to bring purpose to, and elevate the brand equity of Lagom. A self-confessed meticulous project manager, working cross-functionally, I’m constantly observing and connecting information points—a consequence of working in Architecture where you’re considering user experience, stakeholder needs while balancing risks and benefits. So what I want to do with Lagom is to give people that big picture, highlighting the intersectionality of the issues, so readers understand why they have to change and to do so with excitement. In my free time, you will find me either doing pilates, surfing or being in Nature.
I am Tracey, co-founder of Lagom which in many ways was a project borne out of interests and work in photography and design that merges academic background in sciences. I’ve spent the last four years working freelance in marketing and communications, collaborating with brands on their online strategy and content. We live in an age of conditioning that is inherently unsustainable. And so I am interested in how personal values inform the way we consume, that relationship between psychology and consumerist behaviour and how through visual media. Lagom is a big part of my life. Even if it is a side project, it remains a space where I am eager to collaborate and enthusiastic about creating work that shifts perceptions towards human and planetary health.
If it wasn’t for these two, Lagom wouldn’t exist. Eduardo is Trace’s partner, and Benoit is Amandine’s. Their combined experiences as front-end and back-end developers provided the structure for our ideas. Built with Django, the Lagom website is a jewel of technology and was an opportunity for our partners—and ourselves to experiment with an online platform that supported various marketing techniques, resulting in a custom build that is visually pleasing, accessible and secure—on a budget.
A major goal of Lagom is to provoke thought about the decisions we make when we buy and the realities of cost and consumption—prioritising sustainability in editorial. Amid an ever-evolving collective geopolitical and climate crisis, it remains vital we reconsider our relationship with Mother Earth. We cannot eternally take without consequence. Our aim is to encourage inclusivity and participation while exploring issues at the intersection of health, climate, waste and the connectivity of our systems.
We want this space to become a tangible resource as we collectively navigate positive ways forward. Our website features original articles, stories, interviews and vegan recipes while sharing those researching, implementing solutions, and spreading awareness and education. We hope Lagom excites and inspires people to approach consumption differently—if we do our inner work, the collective outer world will transform. The grass is always greener where you water it.
“Our intent is to empower people to invest in themselves and their environment, encouraging new ways forward that are slower, more inclusive and friendlier to Mother Earth.”
We’re an independent publisher, and we don’t have to cater to or answer to anyone (other than our readers!), so we look forward to having fun with what Lagom can be and how it can look over the next six months. We produce and edit our own creative, working to bring impactful content and user-driven experiences to life on Lagom.com. This includes strong media and creative skills in photography, copywriting, narrative and editorial strategy with a deep knowledge of environmental impact and sustainability issues, specialising in the food, beauty and wellness industries. We write, edit, and publish 3-4 vegan recipes, interviews and articles per month. Our combined skill set is wide and diverse. And we are also directly but firmly rooted in activism, Trace for Koha Apparel, and Amandine within the Auckland Permaculture community.
Our content is based on various factors, such as intuition, personal and geopolitical context, as well as global themes of interest, with a tangible understanding of what people want and what brands need. We look for brands that we appreciate and share the same values as us but we also want to work with and feature brands who would see value in what we produce and our approach. For any partnership enquiries, please contact us at hello@thisislagom.com.