This is a tutorial for Adobe Photoshop:

I'm going to show you how to make a nice, clean & quick 234x60 banner (also known as a half banner)... I'm going to do this and create color without having to work for it or break any real copyright laws.

First we need an image.




Now we need to "steal" some color from another image. I did a google image search for "neon" and found this bright colored image to work with.



But to use this image as is, well... would be stealing. And we don't need to keep it that way for what we are trying to do. So, let's drop that image into our banner canvas.

With the "color" on our canvas, we want to edit it so that we are not violating anyone's art. So, let's add some motion blur.

Next we will add some layer effects...






and we get this:

Just to jazz it a little more lets add a web2.0 style effect to it... simply adding a white layer over it.

On the Layers Palette look for this: (to get a new layer)


Fill it white:


Cut it in half: (I used the selection tool)


And then I set the Opacity to 30%... Here is the result.

Lastly add your text...



All done. Try it out with all types of images and stronger motion blurs... This process is great for making abstract avatars too.