I feel like you guys are being a bit harsh to this person. He claims in his thread title that it's his "first professional design," which could mean a variety of things to him, not to be taken literally. And as this is his "first," the usage of "logo" is also unintentional, albeit misplaced, because forums do use banners, as this appears to be. The commentary here is great in content, but, isn't tone it's delivered in rather caustic to a guy who said he spent a whole day making it?
And @
Kuesopop , as everyone's said, keep it simple. Keep it a bit smaller too, as, no one wants to see a forum banner take up half the page. Don't use things for the sake of making the image complex, as they'll make the image messy. Simple images, simple fonts, one focus point
Don't be discouraged, as this is a great first try. A lot of people just start off slapping text onto pictures.