In this thematic essay we we mark out some of the main concerns that a futures oriented design education might include within a framing we label ‘Anticipatory Design’ (Celi & Morrison, 2017). In essence, Anticipatory Design refers to design that seeks to develop design literacies, practices and analyses that ‘take care ahead of time’ (Morrison, 2019). Through FUEL4DESIGN we have taken up the term and made it more visible to highlight relationships, potentials and pedagogies that contribute to a dynamics of shaping futures and design (Candy & Potter, 2019). In adopting a view of design futures literacies in-the-making, our framing is not meant to be universal, absolute or determinist. Rather, it is dynamic, relational and emergent in character and it is situated in a diversity of contexts and acknowledging difference and plurality. In brief, our work adopts a mode of ‘using the future in education’ (Facer, 2016) and extends it to making design futures in learning through anticipatory designing.