Named for a man who spent forty years making other people’s brands look good.

Hand-rolled Nicaraguan and Dominican cigars out of Saint Johns, Florida. Six colors, six blends, one at a time — every one of them lifted straight off my father’s drawing board.

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Hand-rolledLong fillerWhole leaf wrapperNothing added21+

The story

My father spent his whole career on other people’s labels.

Bill Miller started at Ted Bates in New York, where the U.S. Navy was one of his accounts, alongside HBO, Coors, General Foods, Hertz, and M&M Mars. He brought the work home to Long Island, ran his own studio, and taught advertising design at Farmingdale State University of New York for three decades.

He set his own name in white on a deep navy field, with the word Design running through six colors. That mark is the whole brand. The navy is his. The six colors are his, in his order, unchanged.

The word Cigars has six letters. So does the word Design. I did not have to adjust anything to make it fit, which is roughly how I knew to do it.

His work

Forty years of other people’s labels.

Advertising · Collateral · Direct Mail · Logo Design

American ExpressAT&TAvisCablevisionChase Manhattan BankCondé Nast PublicationsCommodore ComputersCoors BeerDomino SugarFour Seasons RestaurantGeneral FoodsGarden City HotelHarmon GolfHertz Rent-A-CarHilton HotelsHome Box Office & CinemaxKyoceraLong Island PhilharmonicM&M MarsMaybellineMichelobNikonNY IslandersPanasonicPeace CorpsPine-SolPlaytexPrudentialRiuniteSbarroShowtime & The Movie ChannelStony Brook University HospitalSymbol TechnologiesTyco ToysTwinlabU.S. NavyYashica Cameras and always room for more

Every one of those was somebody else’s name going on the wall. This one is his.

The colors

One color per blend. Nothing decorative about it.

Every band is navy, cream, and gold, and carries exactly one accent color. That is the blend. It keeps the printing honest, it keeps the band from shouting, and it means the line is a system instead of five unrelated labels.

No. INo. IINo. IIINo. IVNo. VNo. VI

Five are spoken for. The sixth is still empty, and it stays empty until there is a cigar worth putting in it.

The line

Five blends. Two of them have names.

No. I

Nicaraguan Maduro

Full and bold. The one you smoke when you have an hour and nothing else to do.

No. II

Nicaraguan & Dominican

Medium and balanced, blended through the whole cigar rather than layered. The everyday stick.

No. III

Espresso

Lighter and approachable, with espresso and cocoa notes that come from the leaf itself. Built for the person who does not usually smoke one.

No. IV

Signal Charlie

The founder’s own blend. Named for the call that means the flying is done.

No. V

Sufficient Grace

An imperfect cigar for an imperfect person. Every hand-rolled cigar has a flaw in it somewhere.

No. IV · Signal Charlie

Cleared to come home.

Charlie is the ship’s signal clearing you to land. Every naval aviator waits on it — jet, prop, or rotary — and it is the call that means the flying is done. For a cigar you light at the end of a day, nothing else in the vocabulary fits.

I flew helicopters. The helo is airborne before the first jet launches and still turning after the last one is aboard. First up, last down. And if a fixed-wing guy ends up in the water, the helicopter is the aircraft that comes for him.

That is the story on the box. The name belongs to everybody who ever waited to hear it.

No. V · Sufficient Grace

An imperfect cigar for an imperfect person.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9

Paul asked three times to have a weakness taken away from him. He was not told it would be removed. He was told grace was enough.

Every hand-rolled cigar has a flaw in it somewhere — a vein that runs wrong, a seam that shows, a burn that wanders and has to be corrected. That is not a defect in the process. It is the evidence of the hand that rolled it.

The verse is printed on the box rather than the band. A band comes off in the first minute and ends up in an ashtray, and those words are not going in an ashtray.

What this is about

The cigar is not really the point.

It carries somebody’s name

Not a founder story reverse-engineered from a mood board. A real man, a real forty-year career, and a mark he drew himself that you can still go look at online. The tribute came first. The cigar came second.

II.

The flaws are the proof

Every hand-rolled cigar has a vein that runs wrong or a seam that shows. That is not a defect in the process, it is evidence of the hand that rolled it. A machine-made cigar is perfect and worth a fraction as much.

III.

It is meant to be handed to someone

The best cigar in the world smoked alone is a worse hour than an average one smoked with somebody. Half of what we make is built to be given away on a patio to a person who was not planning on it.

The cigar

What you are actually getting.

WrapperWhole tobacco leaf

Binder100% leaf tobacco

FillerLong filler

ConstructionHand-rolled

OriginNicaragua

LeafNicaraguan & Dominican

Added flavoringNone

ContainsTobacco, water, vegetable gum

No infusion, no casing, nothing sprayed on. If a cigar in this line tastes of espresso or cocoa, it is because of the leaf that went into it.

Questions

Before you ask.

Are any of these flavored?

No. Nothing is infused, cased, or sprayed. No. III tastes of espresso and cocoa because of the tobacco in it, not because anything was added to it. Everything in the line is whole-leaf wrapper, full leaf binder, long filler, and nothing but tobacco, water, and vegetable gum.

Where are they made?

Hand-rolled in Nicaragua by an established maker, from Nicaraguan and Dominican leaf. We do not roll them ourselves and we do not pretend to. We choose the blends, we put our name on them, and we stand behind them.

How do I actually get one?

Right now, in person — at events around Saint Johns and greater Jacksonville, and through lounges carrying the line. Get on the list below and you will hear where we will be and when boxes are available.

Do you sell to lounges and bars?

Yes, and that is the fastest way to get the line in front of people. If you run a lounge, a bar, or a private club, use the wholesale form below and tell us what your members smoke.

Can you ship me one?

Not yet. Two of the three major parcel carriers refuse tobacco outright and the third requires a negotiated agreement, so shipping is being built carefully rather than quickly. The list gets told first when it opens.

Who was Bill Miller?

The founder’s father, and a career advertising art director. He started at Ted Bates in New York, where the U.S. Navy was one of his accounts, alongside HBO, Coors, and M&M Mars. He taught advertising design at Farmingdale State University of New York for three decades. The navy field and the six colors on every band are lifted from his own mark.

Do I have to know anything about cigars?

No. Start with No. III. It is lighter, it is friendlier, and it was blended for exactly the person asking that question. Nobody here is going to quiz you on ring gauge.

Why do the colors matter?

Bill Miller set the word Design in six colors. The word Cigars has six letters too. Each blend owns one of them, in his order, unchanged. Line the boxes up and his mark reassembles itself.

Do you do private labels for events?

For weddings, retirements, change-of-command ceremonies, and golf tournaments — yes. Use the wholesale form and tell us the occasion and the headcount.

The list

First look at the next blend.

Where we will be, when boxes come in, and which color gets claimed next. No daily email — there is not that much to say.

Wholesale

For lounges, bars, and event buyers.

If you run a lounge, a private club, or a bar with a humidor, the line is available by the box. Same for weddings, retirements, change-of-command ceremonies, and tournaments — tell us the occasion and the headcount.

Six colors. Six blends. One at a time.

He spent forty years putting other people’s names on things. This one has his on it, and the sixth color is still sitting there empty.

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Come back when you are 21.