What Signage Costs in Essex, and Why

Most sign companies will not put a price on their website. Ask three of them for a fascia sign and you will get three quotes that differ by more than double, with no explanation of why.

Here is what is actually going on, so you can read a quote properly before you sign it.

The four things that decide your price

The sign type. A flat printed panel, an illuminated fascia with individual built-up letters, and a double-sided projecting sign hanging off a bracket are three completely different jobs. They share a category and nothing else.

Whether it lights up. Illumination is the single biggest jump in cost. It brings in electrical work, an isolator switch, a certificate, and often a different fixing method because the sign now has to be serviceable.

How it gets installed. A sign at head height on a flat wall is a two-person morning. The same sign three storeys up, over a pavement, on a Saturday because the council will not close the road midweek, is a different quote entirely. Ask whether access equipment is included. It often is not.

What it is fixed to. Brick is straightforward. Render, timber cladding, listed stonework and modern insulated panels all are not.

Every building is different and anyone who prices your sign without seeing it is guessing.

The thing nobody mentions until it is too late

You may need planning permission, and in Colchester you may need two.

Most illuminated signs need advertisement consent from the council. If your building is listed, or sits in a conservation area, you need listed building consent as well. Large parts of Colchester town centre, Dedham, Coggeshall and Manningtree fall into conservation areas, and the rules there are stricter about illumination, materials and even colour.

The application takes weeks. The sign takes days. Businesses discover this in the wrong order all the time, usually after the sign is made.

Two practical points. Consent is about the advertisement, not the shop, so it does not transfer when a business changes hands. And a sign that goes up without consent can be required to come down at your cost, which is the most expensive possible way to save a fortnight.

When not to spend the money

If you are on a short lease with an uncertain renewal, do not commission illuminated built-up letters. Put up high quality vinyl and window graphics, spend the difference on being findable online, and revisit it when the lease is settled. A brilliant sign on a unit you leave in eighteen months is a depreciating asset with a very small audience.

If your logo has never been properly drawn, fix that first. Signage is where bad artwork becomes permanent and expensive. A logo that looks acceptable on a business card falls apart at two metres wide, and the sign company will not tell you, because redrawing your logo is not their job.

What a sign maker will not tell you

They are quoting to make and fit what you send them. They are not checking whether it is the right sign.

Nobody in that chain is asking whether the sign matches your website, your vehicle livery, your brochure or your shopfront colours. Nobody is asking whether the typeface holds up at that size, whether the colour will match the printed material, or whether the sign will still be right when you open a second site.

That is the difference between buying signage and designing it. When the brand, the print and the signage come from the same place, the colour matches, the type is drawn for the size it is used at, and the specification exists in writing before anything is manufactured.

What to have ready before you ask for a quote

• Vector artwork of your logo, not a JPEG pulled off your website
• A photograph of the building, straight on, with something in shot for scale
• The measured width of the fascia or the space
• Whether the building is listed or in a conservation area
• Whether you have permission from the landlord as well as the council

Turn up with those five things and your quotes will be comparable to each other, which is the entire problem with getting three prices for a sign.

One next step

If you have artwork and a wall and you are not sure what it should cost, send a photograph of the building and your logo file. We will tell you what the sign should be, what consent you are likely to need, and roughly what to budget, before anyone quotes you anything.

If it helps to see finished work first, our case studies are here.