Good Banner?
 

We are converting our site to a racing forum soon, and here is the banner we've come up with. This took about 3 hours in Photoshop because I couldnt make up mind mind on a few things. Let me know what you think:

http://www.thenemesis.net/shpook/and...anner copy.gif


The lightning is a little dirty, but the mess around it matches by BG, so you can't tell. I cut that lightning out of a pic with a stormy sky, and it was a pain in my arse to get that far with it.

:::EDIT::: I added the BG color behind the lightning so you can actually see it now. You can't see the mess I was talking about above, either.

Anybody?

Broken Image :p

Here goes:

-The lightning looks terrible. I know you explained it in your post. but you really don't need it. Also, instead of taking it out of another pic, Photoshop has enough tools to create your own lightning effect.
-The embossed text you have interferes with the image in the background. You might consider making it transparent, or changing the screening mode to Soft Light.
-Maybe it's just me, but perhaps you should add a blur to the background of the text. A motion or radial blur would look good.

Okay, well it seemed like the gap between the top two boxes needed something between it, thats why I tried the lightning. I'm not sure on how to create lightning in Photoshop, and I don't like what the tutorials produce. :D

As for the other suggestions, I think I agree, and I'm gonna work on it tonight and post an update for even more crit. :D

Looks like ass, and I do nothing but websites for Car sites.

I went to your website, it looks just like www.vbulletintemplates.com

I think you could use some of your own creative ideas. Come on know, this isn't to hard to do.