It may be that you wish to improve the navigation of your site with frames. When you have solved content and navigation, then you can worry about aesthetics. They are important, but don't get them out of proportion. People will prize a good site for its information, regardless of how many whirling graphics it has. You can design your site to have columns, graphics, moving graphics, and sound.
Pictures are important and can add variety and impact.
Study page 1 to see how the graphics add to the light-hearted tone of the page, as well as communicating what the page is for. We wanted it to be a friendly place where people would want to stay and browse. Study page 2 to see how the bullets and other graphics, together with the page design, help the readability of the information. If you expect people to linger on your pages because of the volume of information they contain, consider including music to convey tone or help people relax. It's a bit like asking how long a piece of string is.