Print-first zine giveadamn.today is an independent project for artists, creators, and readers who still give a damn about people, place, and what comes next.
Rather than adding more noise to the feed, it gathers work rooted in care, connection, responsibility, and the real lives we share. The aim is not just to publish things. The aim is to make room for work that says something, holds something, and stays with people a little longer.
If this speaks to you, join the list and follow the first issue from the start.
Why a print-first zine still matters
A print-first zine changes the relationship between the work and the person receiving it.
Because print slows things down, it asks for a different kind of attention. In that format, work carries more weight. People can hold it, keep it, return to it, and pass it on. Online, by contrast, most things move quickly and disappear just as quickly. As a result, thoughtful work often flattens into content that people consume in seconds and forget.
That difference matters here. giveadamn.today does not exist to vanish into the feed. Instead, it carries work that deserves more time than that. It is for people who want to feel something properly, notice something properly, and stay with something for longer than a scroll.
Zines have long played a role in independent culture, self-publishing, and grassroots communication. Institutions such as the British Library and Tate have also recognised the role of zines in culture, art, and alternative publishing. In other words, the form has always made space for voices that do not fit neatly into commercial systems. That history still matters now.
What giveadamn.today stands for
giveadamn.today is a print-first zine built around a few clear values.
Care
Care without performance. More importantly, care as practice. What matters here is care made visible through what we make, what we share, and what we stand behind.
Connection
Connection between people, communities, places, and the fragile threads that hold us together. At its best, that connection is lived rather than declared. It shows up in check-ins, gestures, presence, and the everyday labour of not turning away.
Responsibility
A belief that what we make shapes culture, and, in turn, culture shapes how we live with one another. Because of that, the project looks for work that pays attention to consequence, context, and the world beyond the self.
Integrity
Proper credit. Thoughtful curation. Honest work. As a result, there is no interest here in filler, cynical noise, or work that performs feeling without carrying any.
Taken together, these values shape both the editorial direction and the kind of community the zine wants to gather around it.
Who this print-first zine is for
This print-first zine is for artists, photographers, writers, designers, illustrators, image-makers, poets, readers, supporters, and people who still care what happens next.
Some will submit work. Others will follow the project from the beginning. Many will support it, share it, and help it reach the right hands. All of that matters. Not everyone needs to contribute a piece in order to be part of what this project is trying to build.
That distinction matters because giveadamn.today is not only about gathering submissions. It is also about gathering attention around work that deserves it. Just as importantly, it is about building a circle of people who recognise the value of honest creative work and want to help it move further.
If you want to stay close to the project, join the list here.
Issue 1: Between Us
The first issue of giveadamn.today is Between Us.
At the centre of it is what lives between people when we choose not to go numb. That includes care, vulnerability, connection, repair, responsibility, friction, and the visible or invisible ways we hold each other up, fail each other, return to each other, or try again.
More specifically, this issue is interested in the emotional, social, and cultural space between people. It asks not only what we say we value, but also how those values show up in real life. For example, that might mean intimacy, solidarity, grief, mutual support, tenderness, tension, or the effort it takes to remain human when the world rewards detachment.
Accordingly, the first issue is not looking for polished emptiness. It is looking for work with weight. It is looking for work that notices what holds people together, what pulls them apart, and what remains possible between those two states.
If you want to follow the first issue, get the submissions call, or stay up to date, sign up on the homepage.
More than a submissions page
giveadamn.today is not only for people who want to submit.
It is also for people who want to read, support, share, and stay close to work rooted in care, connection, and responsibility. After all, a print-first zine only becomes real through the people who believe in it, contribute to it, and pass it on.
That is why joining the list matters even if you are not planning to submit work yourself. Maybe you want to follow the issue. Maybe you want to read it once it comes out. Some people will want to share it with someone whose work belongs in it. Others simply want more projects like this to exist.
All of those are valid reasons to be here.
Why the name giveadamn.today
The name speaks to urgency, but not panic.
More precisely, it points to the fact that caring is not abstract. You cannot postpone it. It either happens now or it does not happen at all. We make it visible through how we live, what we make, what we notice, what we refuse, and what we pass forward.
Underneath the project is a simple feeling: yesterday has made us want better tomorrow. However, tomorrow does not build itself. If anything meaningful is going to happen, it has to move through today, through attention, through action, and through the work we choose to stand behind.
That is the spirit of giveadamn.today.
Why this print-first zine exists now
There is also a timing question underneath all of this: why make a print-first zine now?
Part of the answer is cultural, and part of it is personal. Culturally, distraction, speed, overproduction, and the pressure to keep feeding platforms surround us. On a personal level, many people feel the cost of that every day. They feel numbness, flattening, and the strange distance that can grow between what matters and what gets seen.
That is why giveadamn.today exists as a response to the flattening. Not everything should become content. Care should not be reduced to branding. Work does not become meaningful only when it performs well in the feed.
Instead, the project chooses a slower, sharper form. It chooses curation. It chooses print. Most of all, it chooses to gather work that can stay with people.
Join the print-first zine
If this feels like your kind of thing, join the list.
You will get updates about the first issue, the submissions call, the deadline, and the release. Some people will come to submit. Others will come to follow. Meanwhile, some will come because they want more honest work in the world.
All are welcome here.
giveadamn.today is a print-first zine for people who still give a damn.