Smithsonian.com

Voting for the People's Design Award begins today. Image courtesy of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

For its fifth consecutive year, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum launches its People’s Design Award contest. As of today, the public can nominate an object by uploading a photograph of it or vote for an existing nominee that, in their minds, constitutes good design. The field is wide open, as evident by the variety of past winners—a house, a shoe, a hearing aid and a bicycle.

The polls are open until 6 p.m. EST on October 12 and already 32 products have been added to the ballot. The site reads like a catalog of our times, spotlighting the fads and tastes of today’s consumers, who, by the looks of it are active, tech-driven and eco-friendly people. Will the people’s choice go to the iPad, the EcoFont (which reduces ink use by 20 percent) or perhaps the South Pond Pavilion at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo?

The museum’s highly-anticipated National Design Week is October 9-17, and the 201o People’s Design Award winner will be announced October 14 at the Awards Gala in New York City.