Not being a designer; whenever I make a site as a side project I struggle with making it look like anything. I don't mean making it look good; just making it no

Not being a designer; whenever I make a site as a side project I struggle with making it look like anything. I don't mean making it look good; just making it not look like an ultra utilitarian 90's style blocks of text page. I wonder if there could be a similar situation here. Without some sort of image it's difficult to make the page not look empty or sterile.