Postcards are sweet, but they also kind of suck: If you’re like us, you buy a ton and never send most of them, because of the hassle of trying to find a stamp and post office from wherever you are.

For a competition at school, students had to design a postcard to be sent home to notify parents of good work. This was the winning design that I created by drawing and manipulating computer images.

Even some of the smartest moguls alive take for granted a truth that is just plain wrong: Direct mail is dead. No, we’re not making this up: Sending physical mail to prospects and customers can ...