Clip art images, if filled with many details, can actually become a distraction when the visual stays in view too long.

Complex graphics, whether they are line art, cartoons, or detailed artist renderings, can sometimes cause the audience to forget about the message because people are too busy focusing on the artwork.

Try to choose graphics you are comfortable with, and if you don’t like the way the clip art looks, don’t use it.

A more obvious distraction is an actual distortion. This happens when you do something to the symbol or the graphic to alter its natural appearance. The alteration forces the audience to concentrate on what the symbol looked like before the distortion.

Elongated maps, stretched objects and flattened shapes are examples of distortions.