Upgrading public signage on the Nairobi and Addis Campuses

In late June, the Director General asked that public signage on both campuses be upgraded. Accordingly, a task force was constituted to take the project forward. Members from Addis and Nairobi are drawn from engineering, design, and administration/operations. Other individuals will be co-opted as needed.

On 3 July, the group met and agreed an overall aim for the project:

To provide consistent, coherent, and comprehensive signage that informs and guides all people working on or visiting our campuses. A key aspect is that the signage should be clear and consistent (across both campuses) and meet ILRI and CGIAR branding requirements.

It was also decided that the project will encompass all signs on both campuses, including:

Informational
Directional
Safety

From office doors to campus entrance gates and encompassing all aspects of the signs including:

Design and branding
Language
Materials and engineering
Updating
Physical locations

In further discussions with operations, supply chain, design and engineering staff in Nairobi, we agreed:

to work with a specialized company in Nairobi on the final design and production; to ensure quality and consistency
to start on external signs (buildings, entrances, directions)
targeting 31 October installation in Addis (for the big ILRI@40 event)
thereafter to rollout other signage.

Subsequent discussions with IMC validated the overall approach and provided essential inputs on several key issues. Most notably that we aim to have an ILRI/CGIAR signboard outside each campus, with a logo ‘tower’ of campus users inside the main gates and a campus map (replicated in several locations), excellent directional signs to different campus locations, branded signs on specific buildings where different organizations work, as well as names clearly attached to all buildings and conference rooms. We will also upgrade safety and road signage to match international standards.

Where are we now?

1 – we have a set of initial engineering and design options from Addis. These are being discussed and improved with Nairobi team.

2 – we are working with a signage company in Nairobi to bring all the options together prior to production.

3 – this has led to a list of standard signage types with initial principles on design and positioning of each. This is being fully documented.

4 – we are working on an inventory of all needed sign types and locations, and numbers of each.

5 – we are engaging in intensive discussions aiming to have draft engineering specifications, designs, and numbers ready by early September. These will be discussed in meetings in Nairobi 4 and 5 September (hopefully including interaction with IMC members) leading to recommendations shared with staff then IMC approval.

Before finalization, we will organize sessions in each campus to solicit any inputs and suggestions we missed.

Task Force members are: