Once you have attracted a visitor to your site, you'll obviously want them to stay long enough to have a thorough read.

There is evidence that people don't like fussy sites and hate animations. So my advice is always to use the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

The main objective of the graphics design of your site is to be pleasing to your visitors. However, you'll naturally want the appearance of your site to:

Please you

Say something about you

An effective way of your letting me know your personal tastes is to let me have:

A list of a few sites you like

A list of a few sites you hate

This will help me understand the kind of site you would like.

After this, I would send you a few sample designs for your comments.

Incidentally, I use Cascading Style Sheets so it's relatively easy for me to change colours, fonts, etc to meet your wishes.