Scenes from a Store: Javi Aznarez Draws Elte’s World
Javi Aznarez has filled his new poster for Elte with stories. It is not one image so much as many scenes stitched together. A man tilts back in a chair, a family pauses by a rug, a couple drifts toward lighting that looks almost alive. Each figure plays its part, and the whole thing feels like a playbill for daily life.
Javi’s wit runs through the drawing. Characters lean, browse, argue, or simply stand and wait. Some are caricatured, others observed with a sharper eye. The poster is a puzzle: spend a minute and you see furniture, spend longer and you see theatre.
Elte, for its part, has been setting the stage for more than a hundred years. Founded in Paris in 1919 by Leon Tenenbaum, the store made its home in Toronto, where it is now run by Jamie and Andrew Metrick, Leon’s great grandsons. The showrooms stretch wide—furniture, rugs, lighting, linens, and Ginger’s for kitchens and baths. There is even Café Elte, which might explain why Javi’s poster makes room for a drink or two.
The company’s heritage is not tucked away. Bhadohi, India, where many of its rugs are made, is also home to a school and women’s center funded by Elte. These ties reach back into the illustration too: woven patterns and textures scatter like cameos from afar.
The fun is in the detail. Javi draws the store as a community, where furniture meets comedy, and where rugs have as much personality as the people walking across them.
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