Eric Saar
Graphic designer/graphics systems coordinator, Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, Binghamton, NY
CAST member since 2001
(Previously Binghamton Ad Club member, since 1991)
What does your company do?
Security Mutual Life Insurance Company offers life insurance products and financial services to individuals and businesses.
What’s your role in the company?
I am a graphic designer and the company’s Web master and graphic systems coordinator. I create everything from business cards to in-house video/multimedia presentations. Projects I work on include brochures, newsletters, flyers, logos, product kits, advertising, signage, our external and internal Web sites, interactive forms and publications, promotions and a large list of other items.
Tell us about the special challenges you face in your job.
One challenge is keeping our ideas and designs fresh and up-to-date with current styles and trends. Another is keeping up with the always-changing technology and software, trying to stay on the leading edge.
What training and prior experience led you to this point in your career?
I earned an AAS in advertising design at Cazenovia College and a BS in graphic design at Rochester Institute of Technology. My past positions included associate designer at The Art Department and senior designer at Electro-Ad Sign Systems. In addition to my job at Security Mutual, I’m a partner (along with CAST member John Gal) in Eyedeas Design, a freelance design and consulting firm. I’m also an adjunct professor at Broome Community College.
Why do you belong to CAST?
CAST gives you a chance to get to know colleagues in your field, ask questions and find out things that you just don't see or read elsewhere. You get to network and make contact with people who work in other facets of the industry that you might not know exist, but that might become important to you in the future. The presentations at CAST meetings offer opportunities to learn new things in many areas. And you get to meet great people and form new friendships.
How have you benefited from your membership in CAST?
I’ve gotten to know people from other areas of the industry who are willing to share information and services when needed.
Final words?
I always tell my students at BCC about my brother, who joined the Binghamton Ad Club while majoring in communications at SUNY Oswego. As a result of attending meetings and networking with all the members of the Ad Club (Now CAST), he got an internship with a large advertising agency during his senior year of college. He also got his first two jobs through people he met in the Ad Club. Through my own involvement, I have made good close friends and professional contacts that have been invaluable in my career.
To learn more about Security Mutual Life Insurance Company, call 800-346-7171 or visit www.smlny.com.
To learn more about Eyedeas Design, visit www.eyedeas-design.com.
Do you know of a CAST member who would make a terrific subject for a profile? Send your suggestion to profiles@castmembers.org.