Supercapacitor is a promising energy storage device, so a lot of researches have focused on the design and control of carbon materials. In recent years, carbon materials have achieved rapid developments in the field of supercapacitors. A variety of synthetic strategies are emerging, which greatly enriches the synthesis technology and makes it possible to fabricate carbon materials with complex structures. This review focuses on the recent design and control of carbon materials for supercapacitors. Here, the different dimensions of carbon materials are discussed and analyzed to understand their advantages and disadvantages in morphologies. And various synthesis methods were developed to overcome these shortcomings of carbon materials to achieve a breakthrough in performances. These synthetic methods are systematically classified, and each one is illustrated with representative examples. To obtain high-performance electrode materials in supercapacitors, the relationships between the synthesis methods, the structures of carbon material and the electrochemical performances were discussed in depth to accurately control morphologies of carbon materials. Current emerging challenges are summarized, and some directions are proposed to solve it to improve the performances of supercapacitors in the future.