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LOOK AND DESIGN: Teresa Magnuson began Sunny & Clear in 2015. Dedicating her life to visual art and design, Magnuson has been able to showcase her talents in surface design. Magnuson has made several pattern designs including the throw pillows pictured.
Magnuson’s Sunny & Clear a showcase of talent By Johanna Armstrong Innovation
Teresa Magnuson started her business, Sunny & Clear, in 2015 while still working full time. She’s dedicated her professional life to visual art and design, starting with her degree in graphic design and apparel design. The idea for Sunny & Clear, which showcases her skills in surface design, came to Mag-
nuson when she got the job to design a new locker nameplate for the Minnesota Vikings. “The equipment manager sent me a player jersey so we could match the color exactly,” she says. When I looked inside the jersey, I noticed a Nordic geometric pattern embroidered into the neck facing on the interior of the garment.” Fascinated with the pattern, considering her background in apparel
design, she knew she wanted to incorporate it into the background texture of her design for the nameplates. The problem was making a pattern that could be perfectly repeated on all sides, what’s called a repeat tile. Magnuson didn’t know how to make one yet, and with a tight deadline she didn’t have time to really learn, so she did what she could and though her client loved it,
she wanted to make sure she was prepared in case she had to do it again. “I love learning something new! Especially if it adds to my efficiency in software or as a tool for creativity in general,” she says. “In my off time, I began exploring and researching the vast info available on the internet and sure enough, I found a class called Pattern Camp.” Magnuson signed up and
suddenly fell into the surface pattern design world, almost by accident, where artists create their designs in full repeats so it can be printed onto fabric yards at a time. “Everything about it felt right!” She started designing her own patterns, taking ordinary things (fishing lures, oars, campers, animals, insects and more) and making them more fun, giving them
a playful twist. “I use my own whimsical illustrations to decorate a range of products. This makes them unique since they are pretty much one of a kind or originals,” she says. Her patterns adorn flags, pillows, tea towels and wall hangings, and Magnuson has recently experimented with new surfaces outside of fabric, putting her illustrations on stationery (journals, notebooks, guestbooks)
