Meet the Ren

What's your role here at Loewen Design Studios

It is operations / admin / shipping. 

And what is the day like in your role?

I start by focusing on orders. Because every single table is made to order, I review to see if we need to special order any wood or steel.

So, I follow after a customer has gone through the process of designing their table with Sharon and Ted. Once they've chatted with the customers and made sure the details are in, I double check those and get everything into production.

Then if there's shipping that needs to be done, I like to get that done in the morning so that it can be ready for pickup by UPS and Canpar.  I also do a lot of scheduling like logistics, meetings and planning - making sure everything's ready for our trips on time.

Just kind of making sure the flow of production is staying on track and then if those are all taken care of, I sort of help out with any projects that needs assistance. Yeah. Anything I can get my hands on to help out around here. 

So, tell us something about yourself. 

I once watched the same movie, 31 days in a row. I didn't watch any other movies 

Which movie was it? 

It is the exorcist. It is one of my comfort movies. To be fair, the month was October for Halloween. It wasn't like January.

What would people never guess that you do in your role? 

Um, I I sort of kind of explained it, but like, for shipping it kind of goes a little bit further in terms of when we get set up for trips, I set up all the things to make sure that when we cross the border, we have all the proper documentation.

So that Brian and Lynn don't have to spend a lot of extra time there like it's already time consuming the trips that they go on. Yeah. Because they're very long and we're delivering to customers further away from us by quite a bit. So I prepare those documents and everything, which I'm actually doing later today. 

If you could be any fictional character, who would you be?

 I enjoy obscure background characters mostly from Star Wars. So I just want those brief iconic moments like Babu Frick, those ones we related to.

What was your most unusual or interesting job?

I actually worked as a camp drama instructor after my second year of university. My friend Tyler and I got to work and play with the kids. It was a youth program for kids at risk. We condensed Mama Mia into an hour. The musical actually turned out really good and the kids were really into it. It went over an hour and they were okay with it, but we just had so much fun.

The whole camp eventually loved the show. Not every kid was into musical theater at the start.  There was like maybe five kids, enjoyed it and by the end we actually had a bunch of kids really enjoy it. They wanted to be background characters or just wanted to be in the crew. They were having fun dancing with the songs, would record request songs or would be like I want to do the dance again.  It was just really fun and we taught drama classes and yeah, I'll never forget my time there. The kids were amazing

What did you want to be growing up? 

Um, Ninja Turtle, was probably the first answer. Living on the sewer would be really economically friendly for me, but also, I'm pretty sure that I told my kindergarten class. I wanted to be an artist and I stuck with that. So yeah, I was the only one in kindergarten with a realistic job. Everybody was like I want to be a princess and I was like I'm going for realism. I would like to be a starving artist. 

What do you like most about your job? 

Not to be that person but I love the people I work with. I live with one of my bosses so I am obligated to say that I am being held hostage. Let the people know. If you work a job where you don't like the people you work with it makes the work hard but we are like a family here.

 If you could switch your job with anyone else in the company, who's job would you want 

Norm!

You can't say the norm everyone has said. You have to pick someone else.

 I also just want to be a dog.

I'm gonna say Lynn. I'm really bad with directions, but I'd really just like to, like drive for a really long time. I would like looking out and maybe meet some customers. This sounds fun. I don't know. Feel like it would be kind of cool to see. I don't want to drive, I'm not qualified for that.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life. Who do you think should be cast as you 

Jack Black? But I don't want anyone to acknowledge the fact that is a man in his 50s. Playing a 20 year old, I just want to act like it's normal. 

Can you describe Loewen design studios? In three words? 

Yes, quality, handmade, beauty.

What is your favorite table?

 My favorite table is the bookmatch river table because I really liked the blue epoxy. That was a good one. It's really pretty and it has a whimsical feel to it. The blue epoxy table river on suma. I feel like it suits my style. I would be able to, like decorate, my house, really nice with a staple piece. I like it in black too. But i think the blue is better because it looks like water