Logo needed for New York City real estate startup

Bala Real Estate

We’re two young professionals, based in New York City, looking to change the way the buyers acquire and/or manage residential real estate properties in New York. Only our brokerage arm is currently up and running, but our brand will soon include management, consulting and development businesses. We aim to provide value, substance, and a high level of personal service.

We'd like to emphasize that--although we are seasoned legal and finance professionals (with international experience) who are accustomed to working with large institutions and high net worth individuals--we're also relatively young people (early/mid 30s) who live, work and play in NYC. We're connected to the pulse of the city, and provide the same levels of service and value to first time homebuyers that we provide to wealthy investors. Ours is a "buyers only" brokerage (since we never represent sellers or list properties, there is never a conflict of interest). Our message: we provide a high level of service and sophistication to buyers, yet we're down to earth and understand NYC residential real estate "on the ground." We know the streets, we know the neighborhoods, we know the right questions to ask. In short--it's a no brainer. Slogan: Bala Real Estate--a broker for buyers. Short, simple, crisp.

Initially our customers will be buyers of New York City residential real estate through our brokerage company, Bala Real Estate, most of whom are tech-savvy. We'll introduce our clients to technologies that few firms are employing in today's market and we'll continue to innovate as we grow and mature as a company. First time buyers, young families, young professionals and international investors will be the bulk of our initial customer base. As we expand and diversify our business, our customers may include institutions (investment funds, etc.) in addition to individuals.

Our customer base will be made up of mainly highly educated, worldly, diversified, and sophisticated professionals who value our diverse experience and perspectives, and choose to live or invest in our city. We'd like to convey the message that the people behind Bala Real Estate are just like them in this respect.

We are open to both text-based and graphic-based logos, but all logos must incorporate the words "Bala Real Estate". It should be “professional” and “elegant” rather than abstract or cartoonish, but we want to differentiate Bala from the old, large, traditional real estate firms in New York. Our logo should embody energy, innovation, creativity and youthfulness, but not playfulness. Our logo should be simple and crisp, timeless rather than flashy.

Colors: dark blue, grey, soft purple, forest green. Tones: muted, classic and rustic, not loud. The logo background should be white, or a light color. Logo can be "framed" or not.

Example logos we like:

http://www.twotreesny.com/
http://www.bondnewyork.com/
http://www.bittorrent.com/
http://www.abacusproperties.com/

Mercedes Benz, Nike and Apple all have the kind of simple, timeless graphic logos we like.

Example logos we dislike:

http://www.ajclarkenyc.com/BrokerWe…/index.asp
http://www.abovegroundrealty.com/
http://www.tudorrealty.com/
http://www.7184992000.com/
http://www.goodstein.com/about.html

The files we will require are:

Print file format - .ai (CMYK)
Web file format - .jpg and layered .psd (RGB)

Please do not use any stock images or clip art in the logo.

We may also need design services for our website, going forward.