Alice Daisy Pomfret had wanted to start a magazine for years but refused to launch one without a concept that justified its existence. The independent magazine world, she knew, was saturated enough. Then the idea arrived: take a single influential person and dedicate an entire issue to their life’s work — not a profile squeezed between ads, but a full publication, cover to cover, exploring what one individual built, created, or became. She ran a Kickstarter campaign from Norwich, England, and in late 2018 the first issue of Akin appeared, devoted to the late architect Zaha Hadid.
Issue two explored artist Grayson Perry. Issue three took on Vivienne Westwood and sold out during the first week of the pandemic — a testament, Pomfret said, to the resilience of the community around the magazine. But Akin has evolved since those early monograph editions. More recent issues have broadened the lens from singular icons to thematic explorations of independent creative life: issue five, centred on new beginnings, featured ceramicists, knitwear designers, restaurant founders, and thought pieces on everything from living off the land to moving back home in your twenties. The throughline remains the same — championing the ethos of supporting your local — but the format has grown more inclusive.
In March 2022, Pomfret opened a physical shop in the Norwich Lanes selling independent magazines and hosting creative workshops, extending the magazine’s community into a permanent space. Akin is stocked internationally, from Singapore to Hamburg to Amsterdam to London, and publishes annually. The title itself signals connection: to be akin to someone is to recognise yourself in them, and every issue is an invitation to discover that kinship — whether the subject is a Pritzker Prize laureate or the woman who just opened a bakery down the road.
<a href="https://akinmagazine.com/" target="\_blank">Visit Akin