Code Golf - Banner Generation

Question

J, 133 135 79 83 84 88 characters (utf-8 encoding)

;/5 3$"1(' ',.s){~"1#:3 u:(ucp'翇篭篯礧歮禧禤祯寭璗牯宭䤧彭忭筯篤筿殭秏璒孯孪寿咕寏犧'){~0>.64-~a.i.s=:

Usage:

    ;/5 3$"1(' ',.s){~"1#:3 u:(ucp'翇篭篯礧歮禧禤祯寭璗牯宭䤧彭忭筯篤筿殭秏璒孯孪寿咕寏犧'){~0>.64-~a.i.s=:'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ !'
┌───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┐
│AAA│BBB│CCC│DD │EEE│FFF│GGG│H H│III│JJJ│K K│L  │M M│N N│OOO│PPP│QQQ│RR │SSS│TTT│U U│V V│W W│X X│Y Y│ZZZ│   │!!!│
│A A│B B│C  │D D│E  │F  │G  │H H│ I │  J│K K│L  │MMM│NNN│O O│P P│Q Q│R R│S  │ T │U U│V V│W W│ X │Y Y│  Z│   │!!!│
│AAA│BBB│C  │D D│EE │FF │G G│HHH│ I │  J│KK │L  │M M│NNN│O O│PPP│Q Q│RR │SSS│ T │U U│V V│WWW│ X │YYY│ Z │   │!!!│
│A A│B B│C  │D D│E  │F  │G G│H H│ I │J J│K K│L  │M M│N N│O O│P  │QQQ│R R│  S│ T │U U│V V│WWW│ X │  Y│Z  │   │   │
│A A│BBB│CCC│DD │EEE│F  │GGG│H H│III│JJJ│K K│LLL│M M│N N│OOO│P  │QQQ│R R│SSS│ T │UUU│ V │WWW│X X│YYY│ZZZ│   │!!!│
└───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┘

    ;/5 3$"1(' ',.s){~"1#:3 u:(ucp'翇篭篯礧歮禧禤祯寭璗牯宭䤧彭忭筯篤筿殭秏璒孯孪寿咕寏犧'){~0>.64-~a.i.s=:'this is incorrect input.'
|index error

Explanation (NB. is comment in J):

;/              NB. String together along the third dimension...
5 3$"1          NB. ... reshape each line to 5x3...
(' ',.s)        NB. ... a space before each letter of the input string...
{~"1            NB. ... indexed using...
#:              NB. ... the (15 bit) binary representation of ...
3 u:            NB. ... the integer representation of...
(ucp'翇篭篯礧歮禧禤祯寭璗牯宭䤧彭忭筯篤筿殭秏璒孯孪寿咕寏犧')  ... the unicode versions of these code points...
{~              NB. ...indexed using...
0>.             NB. ...the max of 0 and...
64-~            NB. ...64 less than...
a.i.            NB. the ascii indexes of s
s=:             NB. Assign the input string to the variable s.

Python, 250 224 chars

s=raw_input()
for i in range(5):
    for c in s:
        print''.join((' ',c)[int('2zj93fqzj6hsh2bc8i2b1ycncj5yc2v9i0m16dz91gcizj18blbw6wt0p3qqh8svchwc5onna2808of',36)>>((ord(c)-65 if c>'@'else 26)*15+i*3+j)&1]for j in[0,1,2]),
    print

Notes:

• relies on 2.x print statement considerably;
• supports spaces.

Running (I changed appearance of a few letters, for aestetic reasons only ;):

$ echo ABCDEFGHIJKL | python code-golf.py
AAA BBB CCC DD  EEE FFF GGG H H III JJJ K K L   
A A B B C   D D E   F   G   H H  I    J K K L   
AAA BBB C   D D EEE FFF G   HHH  I    J KK  L   
A A B B C   D D E   F   G G H H  I  J J K K L   
A A BBB CCC DD  EEE F   GGG H H III JJJ K K LLL 

$ echo MNOPQRSTUVWX | python code-golf.py
M M N N OOO PPP QQQ RR  SSS TTT U U V V W W X X 
MMM NNN O O P P Q Q R R S    T  U U V V W W X X 
M M NNN O O PPP Q Q RR  SSS  T  U U V V WWW  X  
M M N N O O P   QQQ R R   S  T  U U V V WWW X X 
M M N N OOO P   QQQ R R SSS  T  UUU  V  W W X X 

$ echo YZ\! | python code-golf.py
Y Y ZZZ !!! 
Y Y   Z !!! 
YYY  Z  !!! 
  Y Z       
YYY ZZZ !!! 

There are trailing spaces.

Figlet (0 chars)

wget -q 3.ly/gzkv;figlet -f b

Sample output:

% wget -q 3.ly/gzkv;figlet -f b ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS

 A  BB   CC DD  EEE FFF  GG H H III  JJ K K L   M M NNN  O  PP   Q  RR   SS 
A A B B C   D D E   F   G   H H  I    J K K L   MMM N N O O P P Q Q R R S   
AAA BB  C   D D EE  FF  G G HHH  I    J KK  L   MMM N N O O PP  Q Q RR   S  
A A B B C   D D E   F   G G H H  I  J J K K L   M M N N O O P    QQ R R   S 
A A BB   CC DD  EEE F    GG H H III  J  K K LLL M M N N  O  P     Q R R SS 
% wget -q 3.ly/gzkv;figlet -f b TUVWXYZ \!

TTT U U V V W W X X Y Y ZZZ     !!! 
 T  U U V V W W X X Y Y   Z     !!! 
 T  U U V V WWW  X   Y   Z      !!! 
 T  U U V V WWW X X  Y  Z           
 T  UUU  V  W W X X  Y  ZZZ     !!! 

Python, 233 231 225 224 205 chars

Candidate for the shortest python solution here :-)
It is a two-liner - last line was broken in 3 for urrrr readability

s=raw_input()
for i in range(5):print' '.join(''.join((' ',c)[ord(
'W_E__U__QQ_QN_UQ_EA_Q]_D_Q_QYQ__D[_PP_B__F__Q__EG_Y__EZWU]A_A_P_OPO_\\_QNQWT_YUS'
[max(0,3*ord(c)-192-k)])>>i&1]for k in(2,1,0))for c in s)

ps. Thanks for comments, corrected issues and now using 7-bit ASCII only!

Test banner:

TTT H H EEE     QQQ U U III CCC K K     BBB RR  OOO W W N N     FFF OOO X X     JJJ U U M M PPP SSS     OOO V V EEE RR      TTT H H EEE     L   AAA ZZZ Y Y     DD  OOO GGG !!!
 T  H H E       Q Q U U  I  C   K K     B B R R O O W W NNN     F   O O  X        J U U MMM P P S       O O V V E   R R      T  H H E       L   A A   Z Y Y     D D O O G   !!!
 T  HHH EE      Q Q U U  I  C   KK      BBB RR  O O WWW NNN     FF  O O  X        J U U M M PPP SSS     O O V V EE  RR       T  HHH EE      L   AAA  Z  YYY     D D O O G G !!!
 T  H H E       QQQ U U  I  C   K K     B B R R O O WWW N N     F   O O  X      J J U U M M P     S     O O V V E   R R      T  H H E       L   A A Z     Y     D D O O G G    
 T  H H EEE     QQQ UUU III CCC K K     BBB R R OOO WWW N N     F   OOO X X     JJJ UUU M M P   SSS     OOO  V  EEE R R      T  H H EEE     LLL A A ZZZ YYY     DD  OOO GGG !!!

Haskell, 313 316 320

import Data.Bits
import Data.Char
c&True=c
c&_=' '
a ' '='@'
a '!'='['
a c=c
q s=unlines[s>>= \c->take 3(drop(84*n+3*(ord(a c)-64))$map((c&).testBit(0xffdebaf79f6fbfde7bfe8062f6a979b69b55a4d368ebaf6aeefbe9717add3f8f2ab6a36dbf9b1524d368fedb6fefff69bfdffbff8::Integer))[0..])++" "|n<-[0..4]]
main=getLine>>=putStr.q

For the curious, the large number is the hex version of encoding in the following code. The number is simply used as a bitmap. I've had no success with further shortening the code by encoding the number to other bases even with non-standard character representations.

formats :: [String] -- order: [ A-Z!] <- that's a space in front of A
formats = [
    "   AAABBBCCCDD EEEFFFGGGH HIIIJJJK KL  M MN NOOOPPPQQQRR SSSTTTU UV VW WX XY YZZZ!!!"
  , "   A AB BC  D DE  F  G  H H I   JK KL  MMMNNNO OP PQ QR RS   T U UV VW W X Y Y  Z!!!"
  , "   AAABBBC  D DEE FF G GHHH I   JKK L  M MNNNO OPPPQ QRR SSS T U UV VWWW X YYY Z !!!"
  , "   A AB BC  D DE  F  G GH H I J JK KL  M MN NO OP  QQQR R  S T U UV VWWW X   YZ     "
  , "   A ABBBCCCDD EEEF  GGGH HIIIJJJK KLLLM MN NOOOP  QQQR RSSS T UUU V WWWX XYYYZZZ!!!"
  ]

charToBool :: Char -> Bool
charToBool ' ' = False
charToBool _   = True

boolToInteger :: Bool -> Integer
boolToInteger True = 1
boolToInteger _    = 0

encoding :: Integer
encoding = foldr f 0 $ zip [0..] $ map charToBool $ concat formats
  where
    f (pow, bool) z = z + ((2^pow) * boolToInteger bool)