Don’t judge a book by its cover, and yet first impressions last, especially when those initial impressions are programmed into our subconscious through mass media, advertising and popular culture. It is a deeply human trait and fundamental survival mechanism to categorise, to stereotype and to make decisions based on gut instinct from fleeting and superficial encounters.

Without a second glance, First conjures images of exclusivity, the embodiment of success, the pursuit of perfection, that faster is better and more is more. First references a highly recognisable branding to consider the broader obsession with having what other people don’t, of being special, of the inflation of self through vicarious association with the ideals the subject proposes, through acquisition and exclusion.