Twin Cities graphic designer Pat Thompson tells Minnesota Independent that Coleman’s Web site uses the same font, Gotham, that Obama’s much-admired branding program has used throughout his campaign. She and local type designer Mark Simonson found a lot to love about the design work from Obama’s camp — as Coleman has too, apparently — when they critiqued the graphics of presidential contenders earlier this year. 

“Victory” is Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s mantra now, his one-word answer to Democratic challenger Al Franken’s new one-word mission statement: “Recount.” Coleman used the word again and again at a press conference this morning, even when referring to the slim lead he holds over Franken. It’s not a tiny, fragile lead, uncertified and vulnerable to reversal; it’s “my margin of victory.”

I saw this banner ad at democraticunderground.com but didn’t use it above because I’m not sure it came from the Obama for America campaign. It doesn’t actually link to anything, and Thompson and Simonson told me last spring that replacing the actual letter “O” with Obama’s wheat-field logo wasn’t a habit of the official Obama design team but rather a hint that knockoff artists were at work. It does however serve as another comparison to Coleman’s copycat Web site.