Local Kid Makes It Big!

Part 1:

The Tiki Bar's very own Keith Hollar today made his debut as a "Guest Contributor" on the "The World of Beretta," a blog created by Beretta Firearms.

Read his article "Of Tobacco and Lead" and leave a comment for him there.

Congratulations, Keith, on expanding the writing career (?) you started here on these virtual pages. For all our regular readers, have no fear...Keith will remain Associate Editor and Chief Armorer here at the Tiki Bar for the foreseeable future.

Part 2:

I'm usually not one to "toot my own horn" but last week was a very big week for me in my chosen profession of graphic design...and it had a cross-over effect into my love of cigars.

I have been working for a few months with Jeff and Nada Jumper in coming up with a band design for the Nadi Cigars line. Last week, those bands were finally printed and shipped to them. We were all excited and very pleased at how they turned out. If you haven't tried their cigars, head over to  Sunkissed Smokes and at least buy a 5-pack. 

Also, I got a call last week to help Nate McIntyre out with a couple projects for Emilio Cigars. The most visible thing was helping turn Nate's concept art for Emilio's new logo into something that will work as a print piece. I imagine you'll be seeing this logo show up in different places in the coming months: boxes, magazine ads, billboards along major interstates, barn roofs. Gary gave me lots of credit for this when he intro'd it on Twitter Saturday morning, but I have to say it was really a collaborative effort: Nate's design, my technical graphics expertise, and Gary providing #nutkicks to keep up on track.

When Keith and I (and Jim, Vern, Ray, and Thomas) started this little herfing group called "The Tiki Bar" 6 or 7 years ago, I really had no idea it would lead to any of this...it's been a good week!