Whoever it was at GF Smith who came up with the idea for the Beauty in the Making event, held this week, deserves a gold star. Several gold stars in fact.

I was there yesterday and it was marvellous.

I loved the use of pallets of Colorplan as wayfinders around the event. Well done to whoever did the letter stencilling, by the way.

I loved having a go at letterpress printing on a variety of Adana presses, under the watchful eye of letterpress professionals from Downey.

I loved attempting to make a handmade envelope that would meet the exacting fold standards of expert GF Smith envelope maker Sandra, who made it all look so easy even though it very definitely wasn't.

I loved all the wonderful tactile papers featured throughout.

I loved the fact that loads of other people - including young folk who have no doubt grown up in a screen-based environment - were loving all of this too.

I was beyond excited to see the Monotype exhibit featuring some of Eric Gill's original sketches for Gill Sans. In fact, I think I actually squealed at one point. Sorry about that, fellow attendees.

I loved Linotype: The Film, and it was great to see some ex-Linotype colleagues in the audience too. It really is a terrific film (here's a link to the earlier review of it by our special New York correspondent James Chase). Good news, the DVD will be out soon.

I laughed, but I also shed a tear because the film has some incredibly poignant moments, as well as amusing ones, and it made me think about another wonderful being - the late, great Lawrence Wallis. I know he would have loved the event and the film too and I so wish he could have been there.

I like to think that Lawrence is sitting on his cloud keeping an eye on all that goes on in print anyway. But for those of us still fortunate to have our feet on the planet, if you're in London and can get to Bloomsbury before 6pm, go see Beauty in the Making. It's a guaranteed way to top up those all-important joy levels.