Sunny & Clear showcases Magnuson’s talent

SUBMITTED 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 name plate 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 want ed to incorporate it into the background texture of her design for the nameplates.

The problem was making a pattern that could be per fectly 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 sur face 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 ordi nary things (fishing lures, oars, campers, animals, in sects 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 Magnu son has recently experimented with new surfaces outside of fabric, putting her illus trations on stationery (journals, notebooks, guestbooks)

and laser cutting them onto wooden goods like cutting boards, bookmarks and bot tle openers. She sells these products on her website, sun nynclear.com.

Within six months of ven turing out on her own as a graphic designer, she re ceived her first licensing contract. She was the licensed designer for Quilt MN in partnership with Clothworks of Seattle in 2016 with a sum mer theme featuring motifs of sunfish, campers and mosquitos. In 2018 she was featured as the 2018 fabric designer for Quilt MN with a spring theme depicting lots of plants (poppy and lily of the valleys among others) and animals (frogs, deer, swans, skunks and gophers).

Magnuson found running a business wasn’t for her, though. “Some of the pres sure of running a business on your own turned into fear, and took away from my creativity — not only in my work but in how I operated and promoted my business. I wouldn’t say I failed, but I certainly learned a ton,” she says. “My goal is to learn from my venture, and build my business up to a comfortable size, and at a comfortable pace so that it adds to my in come.”

She’s striking a balance between her work as a mul timedia/digital designer on a marketing team and her business; between selling her items to stores, where they’ll sit next to other merchandise, and direct retail. She still con tinues to design fabrics and collections, having licensed three more nationwide but doesn’t run her business full time. “Everything is a balance and takes a clear strategy. It would be fair to say Sunny & Clear is still evolving!” she says.

SUBMITTED SHOWCASING DESIGNS: Teresa Magnuson showcases her designs at one of the many festivals in the area. Magnuson has learned a lot since running her own business and now runs her operation part time.

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CONTINUING DESIGN SUCCESS:

Magnuson’s designs have helped her gain a licensing contract with Quilt MN. This included summer themes . Animals are also a popular theme for many of her designs. After running a business on her own, Magnuson decided that a new pace was best for her work.