Higher Tariffs will Impact Art Supplies

(You should probably stock up now)

As a consumer product designer, I am more familiar than the average American with tariffs and imported products. Most of what I’ve designed in my career has been made in China or India. Part of the job has always been communicating with factories, and determining how to manufacture the item for the right cost to get to the right retail. The retail price depends on a number of factors, including materials, tariffs, freight/shipping, in some cases licensing or royalty rates, distributor fees, and the markups necessary to cover overhead for both the manufacturer and the retailer.

In the era of the first Trump presidency, tariffs had a significant impact on the cost of goods. Some of these tariffs have been extended under the Biden presidency and continue to have an impact. If Trump follows through with his campaign promises and increases tariffs for all imports, the impact will be felt by every consumer in the US.

That includes artists, who often use expensive supplies that do tend to be imported - like Arches paper or Sennelier pastels from France, or Winsor & Newton paints from England. We do have some really great art supply manufacturers in the USA, including Daniel Smith and M Graham & Co (I highly recommend watercolor and gouache paints from both). But presumably, some of the components that go into these paints are imported - pigments, binders, metal paint tubes, plastic caps, etc. So we can expect that the prices of art supplies made in the USA will go up as well.

As prices of paints and supplies go up, development/overhead costs for wall art manufacturers and art licensing companies/publishers in the US will rise too. Many of these companies are already hurting because people are struggling to afford the necessities of life (the price of which is also likely to go up), let alone buying wall art and home decor.

I don’t say all of this to scare anyone. Frankly the rising cost of products is one of the least scary things about the second Trump presidency, even though the impacts on the economy are likely to be far ranging. I am much more worried about losing my healthcare due to having a well documented set of preexisting conditions. I am simply telling you this to give you permission to go buy art supplies now, before the prices go up. It’s the sensible thing to do.