My banner was created by an artist called Caro Waro (she makes incredible stuff).
and my intro animation which I love was made between her and animator Cristina de Manuel.
Put "waroartwork" and "cristinademanuelink" on the end of facebook dot com to see their work, they are both incredible artists.
In my case, I feel getting them professionally made was a great investment and I couldn't be happier with my channel branding.