Many different types of fan have been applying to various industrial fields. Fan design methods are much different depending on the types of fan, operating conditions, and connecting parts at the inlet or exit of the fan etc. In this study, design methods for an axial-type suction fan are studied. This fan discharges the air in the relative static pressure of -285Pa to the atmosphere with the flow rate of $960m^3/min$. For three-dimensional blade design, three different design methods were applied, such as the free vortex method, the exponential method, and the cascade method. In the cascade method, the blade loading along the radial direction was obtained from the lift coefficient which was necessary to obtain the pressure rise on a fan rotor. This method is different from the free vortex and the exponential method which control the strength of the vortex. The fan performance prediction was conducted using the CFD with three different inlet ducts. The best fan performance was obtained when the fan was designed by using the cascade method. The designed fan using the exponential method showed better performance compared to a fan designed using the free vortex method. However, the fan performance was changed depending on the installed inlet ducts. So, an efficient fan can be designed with the adjustment of design variables on the basis of the flow structures within the fan as well as the fan design procedure.