Today’s new designs have increased in complexity and need to address more stringent societal, environmental, financial and operational requirements. Hence, a paradigm shift is underway that challenges the way complex systems are being designed. Advances in computing power, computational analysis, and numerical methods have also significantly transformed and impacted the way design is conducted. This paper presents an overview of the challenges and enablers as they pertain to the Conceptual, Preliminary and Detailed design phases. It discusses the benefits of advances in design methods, as well as the importance of visualization and knowledge management in design. Finally, it addresses some of the barriers to the transfer of knowledge between the research community and the industry.