I\'ve made a custom control, it\'s a FlowLayoutPanel, into which I put a bunch of other custom controls (just Buttons, each with three Labels and a PictureBox overlayed)
You'll have to post some of the layout code or we won't be able to help much/at all.
Also, your #1 best bet is to profile your code. Profiling is the only surefire way to find out what exactly is performing slowly in your code. In my experience, this is especially true of UI code.