Stylish Logo Design for start-up high-end nanny & au pair agency

Harmony International Nanny and Au Pair Placement Service

I am a multi-lingual mother of 3 with 13 yrs experience as an executive in big global financial companies in Hong Kong and London. I am passionate about great customer service, love children and have more than a passing interest in psychology and branding. I know what it's like to be a working mother looking for an outstanding individual you can trust to care for your children. I was an au pair myself twice in my student days. We will provide high-calibre nannies (day-time, residential, night-nannies...) and au pairs to professional families. We are starting out London-based with presence in Dublin and Stockholm. We hope to expand and have branches in other cities across Europe, and beyond. We will be all about quality in everything we do, a cut above the rest; traditional values but up-to-date and highly efficient. Our image will be quite corporate but at the same time friendly and reassuring. A strapline will be PROFESSIONALISM, UNDERSTANDING SECURITY, EXCELLENCE

We are basically acting as recruiting agents. We want to appeal to both families & candidates - i.e. nannies & au pairs. We will not be charging candidates, just families, but we need the branding to attract candidates too as the more candidates we have on our books the better match we can offer families. But the most important person we're attracting is the mother. She makes the decision. She wants to know we're solid, reliable, secure, professional, friendly, personal, approachable, available to listen to her specific needs. She needs to feel impressed we know what we're about & have a clear sense that we're high-end too & therefore we'll only send her high-calibre candidates to interview. There are zillions of agencies out there but we think most lack real definition in their image. We are targeting profess/exec/affluent families who are prepared to pay well for a good nanny & the time spent by a pro agent finding them a suitable match rather than doing all the searching & following up themselves online on a free site like gumtree.com (The agency will also add value by checking references & criminal records). They have traditional values, some may be old-school, others not: They like the idea of the nanny wearing a uniform & get that ours is practical (a smart and practical polo shirt and fleece-lined rain-proof jacket for colder weather) vs. an old-fashioned pinafore.

* We'll have 2 websites: harmonynannies.com & harmonyaupairs.com sharing the same corporate image, fonts, layout & overall corporate ethos.
* The main differences will be the logo images & colours used on the website & marketing materials. Hence we need 1 logo image for nannies.com & 1 for au pairs.com.
* NANNY LOGO: We envisage a more serious pallette for the nannies - dark navy & charcoal grey; a lighter blue & gold (though we could be persuaded otherwise). This is because the main differences between nannies & au pairs is nannies are usually left in sole charge of the children while the mother works (or is just out); nannies are usually paid much more as they have experience & often qualifications; tend to be a little older, & this is their career.
* AU PAIR LOGO:
Au pairs tend to be 18-28, often doing a gap yr between school & uni or while at uni. They are normally from overseas so their motivation is they get to stay 6-18mths in a house in a foreign city, have weekends & evenings free, & get paid pocket money to go out & have fun. They don't have experience/qualifications & are not left in sole charge of children. They are more a mother's helping hand than a surrogate parent. The au pair image needs to reflect the corporate ethos but also the fun aspect. We will be using our logos on the websites, ltr heads, fliers, welcome packs, car stickers, & crucially uniforms.
PLEASE NOTE: The umbrella co. name will be Harmony International Nanny and Au Pair Placement Service & this will run somewhere along the top of both homepages as part of the logo (probably smaller print than the rest).
Then the logo will also include Harmony Nannies - Peace of Mind (and Harmony Au Pairs - Peace of Mind on the au pair site)... Hope this is clear! Email if not & I'll try to clarify.
I've uploaded a couple of files of early mock-up homepages just to give you an (very untalented!) idea of where I'm coming from