Lens design questions

I am designing a device that will project a 35mm wide object onto a 7mm camera sensor (3MP). One of the objectives is to keep the distance between the object and the sensor small (less than 20cm or 8").
I understand that if I just use a single double concave lens, in theory, it should work. However, I don't know much about other effects (aberrations, etc) that should be accounted for to maximize the image quality.
My question is: how does one go about designing a lens system that will make a 'good' image?
Thanks in advance for any advice, pointers, information...

- Ivan

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