Guest Profile
Geraldine Banes
Geraldine was born in the smallest city in Wales, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, UK. She loved Art, Music, Architecture and English Literature. She always had a book or paint brush in her hand. She went to Art School and studied Graphic Design, focusing on Calligraphy and Typography at Newport/Gwent College of Art for her BA(hons) and then on to London for her Master’s at the Central School of Art & Design. Her life was turned upside down when her marriage broke and she found a job at Monotype, a Type company in Redhill, Surrey. She started there as a Junior draughtsman, hand drawing typefaces. Within a year she’d progressed to a Senior Draughtsman and was training others to draw type. While there, Monotype was approached by Microsoft as they were interested in Monotype’s type library. The Microsoft team trained several of the drawing office people in a new font technology called TrueType. It involved both low level assembly language and a higher-level language called ‘Hinting’. Geraldine took to the technology and with her little girl (who was 3 at the time) was brought out with 3 other Monotype employees to hint the Windows 3.1 Core fonts, Times New Roman, Arial and Courier.
Geraldine was a vendor/Type Engineer at Microsoft for 9 years and a Full-time Employee for just over 12 years. She transitioned to Program Manager & during that time she and the team at Microsoft made many of the fonts you use today on your computer screen. Geraldine continued to work for Microsoft fonts contributing to the decorative font Webdings and working on a new collection of Cleartype fonts under the names - Calibri, Cambria, etc. - which continue to be used on Windows today.
It was while she was at Microsoft that she had a major life changing event that was her wake up call to action. She had to change her life completely after suffering a heart attack that was nearly fatal. This changed her perception on life, death, and how short life is so you may as well live your life’s purpose! Geraldine remarried, became an American Citizen, continues to be creative, painting plants and nature.
And with the greatest respect for the medical expertise that saved her life, Geraldine embarked on retraining and became drawn to complementary health that speaks to the heart & mindful living. She opened a center called Studio Beju in Duvall, WA. This center is focused on a mindful lifestyle that is uplifting and light. It is built as a container of possibilities and is a space that is open to the natural elements of movement, art, dance, meditation & song. It is a place for exploring & nurturing self, home and garden. Each year Studio Beju is open we have an event that gives back to the community. Each month we have a newsletter called Circle that showcases the talents and insights of the instructors that have gravitated towards this view of a holistic lifestyle.
