The banner

Uploaded Saturday, March 23, the administration approved and featured this banner. Designed by @@~Cider Barrel~, it features Applejack reclining and relaxing in Sweet Apple Acres. Mountains fade into the background, with the farm seen in both the middleground and background. A path leads to the farm, and trees on the right create nice shadows in contrast with the rest of the banner. On the left, Applejack naps on the side of the MLP Forums logo, relaxing the rest of the day away.

Composition

Nothing in the banner is directly in the center, and that shows to people like myself that Cider Barrel comprehends composition and used it to his advantage. The closest thing directly in the middle is a foothill in the middleground, but there's barely any detail, and it's leaning a bit to the right, so it still works without being bothersome. The right side doesn't have a lot of hills, with the only obvious building being the farm and some trees in the right-hand side. But there is a balance with the closeness of the hills and trees opposite it. Cider Barrel knew what he was doing when designing this banner, and he did an excellent job checking on the composition.

Navigation treatment

Applejack contains several oranges, normally: the orange for the front, a more muted orange for the shadowed legs, and a dark orange for her stroke. However, the orange here is a bit lighter when not clicked/inactive. When hovered, it's a gray-brown. When active, it's a rich brown. The brown stroke from Applejack's hat is used to wrap around the navigation and "View New Content" box.

What is supposed to catch my eye is Applejack reclining the logo, but the navigation hexidecimal color is too bright. I'm actually seeing the navigation first before the rest of the banner. The banner is the center of attention; you're supposed to look at the main subject and then look down. On its own, the banner succeeds, but with the navigation being a bit brighter, this hierarchy gets lost.

One great method to see if you have that hierarchy correct is by scaling things both big and small. To demonstrate this, on any of the pages, zoom out; the banner will shrink in size. Because of the brighter inactive color and inner glow of the buttons, the chroma is brighter, looking more like a tint and forcing my eyes to examine the navigation. It's fighting with the main subject of the banner.

Legibility is not an issue here under any circumstances.

Logo treatment

Normally, I would frown on the stroke surrounding the logo, but here, it's one case where it really works. If it were plain orange, it would blend in too much in the green, and both colors would clash. The brown stroke separates the logo from the green hills, making it stand out. It toys with the logo, but also shows respect for it. There are no special effects that blind the viewer nor make it illegible. It feels like it belongs in the banner without adding extracurricular effects.

However, despite showing massive respect for the logo, it's still incorrect proportionally. The "Forums" is too small: If stacked on top of each other, "Forums" would be completely under "MLP," when "Forums" should be wider and bigger.

Other

Depth is carefully treated. The foreground is exquisitely detailed in the trees, weeds, fence, flowers, and dirt path; but the background foothills disappear more and more as it moves further in the distance.

Indications of shadows are evident by the way the trees on the right side of the path are highlighted and shadowed, but there isn't enough to truly feel like they really are in the viewers' eyes. The flowers and bushes are quite bright, slightly losing that sense of darkness.

Ideas (for improvement)

1. Use the correct scale of the MLP Forums logo, which is found in my review here. The proportions are there for a reason and should be used as such. Whether that is making "Forums" bigger or "MLP" smaller is up to you.
    
   And for anyone who wishes, a vector format of the logo can be found under my Google Site: EPS, SVG, and PDF.
   
2. Applejack looks like she is on the ground, but to make it a bit more convincing, a small shadow can be placed under her. The same can be said for the apple in front of the logo, because it looks like it is floating without the shadow.
   
3. For the navigation, instead of a dark border around the navigation, you can make it pop a bit by putting the light orange from the inactive buttons as the stroke. That way, the border can pop without being intrusive. For the inactive buttons, you could switch the brown hovering color with the orange. The brown color that can be seen when the cursor hovers over the button could become the color used for the inactive buttons, and the orange fill color for Applejack can be used to for those who hover their cursor above the letters. When doing this, then Applejack and the logo become the center of attention followed by the navigation, solidifying that visual hierarchy to the audience.
   
4. To create that dark, shadowed, vignette effect, the foreground trees on the right could be darker with just a tiny bit of highlight. The background apples on the right can be shadowed into a deep crimson (or removed altogether). As for the bushes, they can also be darker, with some highlighting on the left of some bushes. One key component about creating anything is thinking about where the lighting will strike. Having the right side being almost completely dark forces the eye to look at the design from the left to the center, making it more dynamic.
   
5. More of an idea to push the middleground further back. The green farm foothills in the middleground could lose some of its saturation by adding a very transparent off-white (with some blue) layer over it. The more washed out the color, the further away it looks, and the closer the foreground appears, amplifying the illusion of depth.
   

Conclusion

Designed by ~Cider Barrel~, he shows Applejack a lot of respect by having her reclining happily as part of the main subject of the banner. The logo is evident and enhances the brand of the MLP Forums. It's a well-composed piece and respects the core atmosphere of the show. With a little cleaning up, it can become an even grander banner.