May 4, 2021

Over the years I have had the pleasure of working with lots of clever designer types who are more than handy with a crayon – Chris Beech, John Feeney, Karen Birch, Katie Ruby Miller, Stu Townsend, Dave Officer, Max Chadwick – but the first creative who made a real impression on me was a guy called Will Walton.

He was irreverent, liked a drink, always late, well-read, witty and super creative, and when we worked together at the Hendon Times back in 2001 – a free newspaper that was so good people would pay for it – he used to scribble bits of genius on scraps of paper daily and I soon had a wall full of WW originals including inky the iron, a monkey on a tractor and Jeff Beige.

When I started My Mustard in 2007, I knew I wanted a brand character and I poured through Will’s old pictures and found Bit – a pig rabbit with no mouth but lots to say. Will tidied him up and the rest is history…

Will once said “I used to work with June, she was cruel but fair. She knows that I am joking…. she was just cruel” and that still makes me laugh. Sadly, Will isn’t with us anymore and I am sorry that the eccentric old bugger has gone too soon but Bit is still around.

A creature of few words, he says very little, but regularly.

Succinct, deadpan, and a purveyor of the cringeworthy one-liner his heroes include Tommy Cooper, Steven Wright, Tim Vine, Milton Jones, Stewart Francis.

He has more than a few loyal fans on Twitter across the globe who interact with him daily and he currently has 5595 followers. More than we do.

He has been with us since March 2007 where he appeared on our stationery, we used his name in vain for our products – a little Bit of Google, a little Bit of networking – and he helped us (along with Sarah Staines) trademark our strapline a little Bit goes a long way and featured heavily on our 2017–2021 website celebrating national events and team birthdays.

Bit is now in semi-retirement as he is getting a tad tired, but you can still check him out here.

My favourites from the 3633+ tweets he has, err…. tweeted include:

I went to the zoo the other day, there was only one dog in it; it was a shih tzu.

What time do you go to the dentist? Tooth hurty.

I used to suffer from kleptomania but now I take something for it.