In fact, whenever possible, they should actually contribute to communicating the message. The message, or overall theme, to be communicated by the design should be reinforced by the elements employed. A medieval uncial font appropriate for an invitation to a prayer service would not be appropriate for an annual report. Mixing styles art deco borders and bullets with a Western typeface like Tombstone is generally as bad as mixing one s metaphors and should be avoided. One or two unique design elements that create the particular feel of a piece are enough.
More Good design catches the eye.
In an effort to create arresting, eye-catching work, bad designers tend to place too many elements on a page, thinking that if two fonts look good, then eight will look four times better. In fact, the unnecessary multiplication of entities too many colors, too many fonts, too many screened boxes, too many borders, bullets, rules, and other elements is the hallmark of bad design. Professionals know that people see thousands of images in a day's time, all competing for their attention. People are not likely to pause long enough to read fine print in an advertisement, and they aren't likely to pause to look at an ad at all unless the ad as a whole grabs their attention. If too many items on the page are competing for the viewer's attention, then nothing will grab the eye, and the viewer will simply flip the page, perhaps without ever having registered that there was an ad there at all.