My first ever banner....expect baaaaaaaaaad

Okay, lose those balls for o's. That looks cheesy. Instead, try making the ball really big and fading it out into the background. There needs to be some sort of dimension to the background I think. Of course, you'll need to start with a nice big photo for that.

The lettering is okay, but I think that the glow should be applied with the same colour to all the words. I also don't like how the words are arranged in that diagonal line. They might look better stacked on top of each other somehow, or in a straight line.

I was going to say something about the graphic effects on the letters - it is a little overdone but you might be able to get away with that neon glow look if everything else is kept simple.

Not a bad job to start

Right. I have made some of the changes you have suggested. Tell me what you think now. Maybe I should just put it as a link instead of an image...

the ball in the background looks a bit rough round the edges, maybe use a circular crop on it to tidy it up?

Also the quality at which the image is saved makes it look kinda blurry.

Ok...how do I do a circular crop...I cannot see it anyway...this is probably a stupid question i know!

Better! Now, how about repeating that ball a couple of times so it sort of tiles the background? Try doing that to cover all the blue. Either that or offset it a bit so it's not direclty in the center.

Right. Thanks for your suggestions. I've added a bit more to the banner and while I am not sure about the logo...the stadium looks ok I think.

You're going in the right direction here but its' not quite right. When I was talking about putting something in the background the intention was to provide depth and texture without complicating things too much. Now you've got three separate objects there which make things look too complex (although I do like the way that logo thing looks in behind the player on the right). What you want to do is cover the entire background with either one big photo or several blended together to look like one. Try to cover all of the blue with this.

Learn how to do masking in Fireworks - I'm not sure how it works in that program, but in Photoshop it's a good tool to use for a blended or fade out effect.

Ok. The quality of the logo isn't very good though is it? What do you suggest I do about it?

[EDIT]

I have changed the background and done a bit of masking. Don't know whether this is what you meant. Thanks for this feedback Megan. It's appreciated!

For your first banner it's OK.

My remarks: it's obviously that the banner is composed of 5 images. Try to smooth transition between images and add one light image (pattern or circles or TV lines,...) for background.

Ok. So I should include a light image somewhere. How would I do something like TV lines? That sounds pretty cool!

Also another question. Do you think the banner is a bit too big? What sizes do you guys recommend for banners and also, how should I arrange the text?!

I'm full of questions lol.

Thanks for all your comments and help. It is very much appreciated

Are you talking about a banner as in advertising or for the header section of your site?

Well it is for the header of my site. I thought one for advertising should be a lot smaller.

A lot depends on how the rest of the layout/design is but I generally work to a max of 770 wide (with 0 page margins) so you don't get a horizontal scrollbar at 800*600 and 100 high.

Advertising size is generally 468x60

Ok well i adjusted my banner to the size you suggested. I don't know whether that has made it better or worse than it was before.

Ah. No need to tell me about the TV lines. I found a tutorial on the net that has helped me. Yeah it looks pretty neat with them on

Can you please post the tutorial URL as someone I know was after one the other day and I couldn't find a decent one.

It's for Fireworks 4 but you can pretty much work out what to do as later versions are more or less the same.

But the URL is:

http://www.cbtcafe.com/fireworks/tvscanlines/scanlines.html

Hope it helps!

I'm not sure if they use Fireworks but I'll send it on to them any way. Cheers

Ok. Do you think the banner looks better or worse for the TV lines? Anymore improvements? I still do not think I have mastered the masking yet.

Here's the link to save everyone hunting for it on the previous page!

I think this is really starting to look very good
Not sure about the white lettering, maybe try that in a different colour?

MUCH better now! ALl you need to do is sharpen that text up some so it doesn't blend into the background so much. Maybe put that in a contrasting colour too, so it stands out more. Also make the spaces between the words a little smaller. This is a really great improvement from what you first posted (do you mind putting that up again if you still have it? Others might want to see the difference).

About the width, 770 is good if you're doing a fixed width design. If you want to do flexible width, fade out the right side so it can blend in to a solid HTML background.

Sorry. I don't have the older version. Didn't think I'd need it. That teaches me to make backup copies!

I'm thinking of a gold-ish colour instead of the white text with a black border around it?

I've changed the text to gold now. Whether that looks ok or not is debatable. Do you reckon I should make any other changes now apart from the text?

Thanks for all your opinions. It has really made the banner much better.

I think that looks really good now

Thanks but I guess you should thank the others for their feedback as they made it better!

Now would you suggest that I follow the colour scheme in the banner through on the site? Making the grey darker than in the banner with the same gold text colour?

Much better - the improvement really is remarkable! Definitely do use the yellow and grey for your site's colour scheme. That's an easy way to create a unified design for the site. I am thinking that it might be better if that gold was a little darker/more orangey though.

Ok - well I have changed it now but I think it could be a bit too orangey. Does it still look gold-ish to you guys?

Many thanks for the comments!

Looks great - what's with the blotches on the M though? That should probably be smooothed out to match the other letters better.

Other than that, good job!

I agree with Megan the colour is fine but the honeycomb pattern is a bit too pronounced on the 'M' and kind of spoils the effect. Definitely a good colour scheme now though

hmm...that's weird. I cannot see how I got that honeycomb effect. I don't remember adding it either!

Does it move?