Ep. 85: Sarah Handlos, Director of Brand, Video & Design at Q2

Sarah Handlos, Director of Brand, Video & Design, joins host Karina Jimenez to share how a high school graphic design class sparked a career that has spanned small advertising agencies, boutique design studios, and nearly thirteen years building creative strategy at Q2. Along the way, mentors taught her to never be afraid to ask a question and to fall in love with the problem rather than the solution. In this episode, Sarah shares how her team uses AI to compress weeks of production time into days, from generating interactive floor plans and three-dimensional booth models to building cost calculators for major events. She also opens up about a challenge many creative leaders are facing: AI-generated work can still drift from brand guidelines even after being trained on them. Sarah and Karina also discuss why “human in the lead” is a better framework than the popular “human in the loop,” how a trained creative eye catches what AI consistently misses, and why generic thinking leads to generic brands. For the next generation of designers and marketers, Sarah’s advice is to master foundational design principles before leaning on AI, stay curious enough to explore new tools before committing to one workflow, and never stop asking questions.