Do You Speak Pompey?

Jodie Silsby, a recent graphic design graduate of the University of Portsmouth and D&AD New Blood winner, has mapped her beloved city by its slang, renaming each street in the Pompey dialect…

The map, entitled Portsmouth Vernacular, is the result of a research project looking at the origins and use of slang. “My family goes back four generations in Portsmouth,” says Silsby. “I’m proud that the city has its own phrases and dialect and the map should be seen as a celebration of that.”

Silsby’s map was created for a national project called Doin’ My Nut In that invited students to investigate slang through typography. “I knew students from all over the country would be answering this brief but that I was the only one from Portsmouth,” Silsby explains.

The Portsmouth Vernacular map is now available to buy from Silsby’s website, jodie-silsby.com, in black, cyan or fluorescent coral ink.

Apparently Silsby is now working on an even more ambitious project; to map London slang. When we get more details of that undertaking, we’ll be sure to post them on the blog.

I think its something different for sure and also something that could be put at practical use.