The Evolution of an Idea

Yesterday I was asked by an art director how I came up with the postcard idea.  I have to admit I did have some help.  First, the main idea came from Randy Santos, a photographer based out of Washington, DC.
He has been sending out a monthly postcard to clients for about three years and mentioned to me that I should do the same.  I've been sending them to clients for just over a year now. 
Here is an example of an early postcard:

A few months ago I got tired of the same look and wanted to change the template, but wasn't sure what direction to take.  Talking with Amanda Sosa Stone, she said "why not make it look like a real postcard".  What an amazingly simple solution.  I designed some mock ups, sent them to her for input. 
Here is what I came up with:

The tricky part was finding stamps and designing the postmark.  I update both to show where the image was taken - it's subtle and works brilliantly.  All of this was done in Photoshop and is saved with layers, so changing everything is quite easy.  Writing a new message is easily done on my Wacom tablet.  I feel like I'm sending out a real postcard - message and all.   This is what I really love about photography - it allows me to evolve.  So Thank You Randy for sharing the idea with me and Thank You Amanda for all your great input.