The cost of a sign

How much would you spend on a sign or a series of signs covering a university campus? A couple of thousand? How about £700,000?

[caption id="attachment_366" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Land fenced off for new signage"][/caption]

A week or so ago small sections of land started getting fenced off around Sussex University campus where I study and work, attached to the fences were signs saying trenches were being dug for new signage. In relation to the few signs and maps scattered around campus at the moment a lot of new ones were going up so it seemed a little excessive, today I found a brief article explaining that a campus signage review had been carried out and new signs were being installed at a cost of £700,000.

This is a figure I think a lot of people would find over the top, especially for signs but it really depends on what the final result is.
If they are just going to be as simple as maps on a stick then I think it will be a waste of money but something like this is a fantastic opportunity for the university to do something great. Rather than just maps these could be interactive information points, computer terminals displaying the latest university information or serving location information and people finders. I am certain they won't be anything like this but they could at least make them semi decent by using them to extend the poor wireless internet service available on campus. These information points are everywhere and it looks like most of them would have power for lighting so it would have been a great opportunity to add wireless repeaters to improve coverage.

The other issue with this is the cost, I imagine a large portion of the money would have been spent on the external audit of the current signage, why did this need to be external? A few years ago the university paid a company £2 million to come up with a new brand including colours, logos and a general look, this is a specialised thing requiring lots of skilled people and I believe the money was well spent, this current project doesn't require a high skill level just a moderate level of competence which I hope anyone working at the university would have.
Anyone could have analyzed the current signage and come up with a new plan why did they have to waste money on an external audit especially at a time when the university is in financial trouble and needs to save a lot of money.

Hopefully they will start to go up soon and I can see what they are going to be like.