This is an excellent question - one I've been trying to answer for myself for quite sometime.
You certainly don't need to go graphics heavy, but having an eye for arrangement, matching color palettes, typography, flow, etc... are all crucial to an elegant design. I've found you don't ever need to go graphics crazy if you can master all of those fundamentals with what HTML+CSS provides you.
Graphics and graphic design should just "add" to it. A lot of designers I work with use graphic design as a crutch for their inability to understand true elegant web design (hence why I will never subcontract a designer that "does primarily print work and web design on the side").
In all honesty, a programmer is more capable of devising and creating an elegant and magnetic site design for one primary reason: a programmer grasps the underlying technology and capabailities (hell, it's programmers that made Photoshop possible!). Just adding in a classical eye for aesthetics will make your ability to arrange and select out of what you already know much more efficacious.
You certainly don't need to go graphics heavy, but having an eye for arrangement, matching color palettes, typography, flow, etc... are all crucial to an elegant design. I've found you don't ever need to go graphics crazy if you can master all of those fundamentals with what HTML+CSS provides you.
Graphics and graphic design should just "add" to it. A lot of designers I work with use graphic design as a crutch for their inability to understand true elegant web design (hence why I will never subcontract a designer that "does primarily print work and web design on the side").
In all honesty, a programmer is more capable of devising and creating an elegant and magnetic site design for one primary reason: a programmer grasps the underlying technology and capabailities (hell, it's programmers that made Photoshop possible!). Just adding in a classical eye for aesthetics will make your ability to arrange and select out of what you already know much more efficacious.