Creativity and innovation are key factors in the nation's competitiveness and wealth creation. Innovation management processes are used to ensure organisations respond effectively to internal and external opportunities. However, the focus of these processes tends to be at an organisational level and they are not well integrated into technical aspects of the product development processes that deliver products to market. This research investigates ways in which the emerging discipline of [shape and spatial] design computation can enhance technical creativity and innovation in early product development processes. If successful, the research could lead to a new generation of computer aided design synthesis systems that support early design ideation processes leading to improved responsiveness to customer needs, reduced time to market and reduced through life costs.