Those lovable folks at Cooper-Hewitt have done it once again with the just-this-second announcement of their People’s Design Award, a public-voted award that will be presented at the National Design Awards this year. So if you’ve got something you’ve been wanting to get more attention, here’s your chance. The whole scoop:

As part of the 2006 National Design Awards program, the general public will have the opportunity to express their views on what constitutes good design by voting for the first-ever People’s Design Award.

* Online voting can be done by logging on to www.cooperhewitt.org/pda
* Voting begins on Sept. 17 and will close on Oct. 16 at 6:00 p.m. EST.
* Users can browse and vote for designs posted on the site or nominate a new design by uploading their own images.
* The winner will be announced live on Oct. 18 at the National Design Awards gala in New York City. The announcement will be streamed live on Cooper-Hewitt’s website at 10:00 p.m. EST.

“The goal of National Design Week is to make design more accessible to the public, and what better way to do that than to give them a chance to vote for their favorite designs,” said Cooper-Hewitt director Paul Warwick Thompson. “Design profoundly affects all of our lives and we hope that the People’s Design Award will spark a national dialogue about the value and impact of good design.”