In this article I outline how a digital-visual-sensory approach to anthropological ethnography might participate in the making of relationship between design and anthropology. While design anthropology is itself coming of age, the potential of its relationship with applied visual anthropology methodology and theory has not been considered in the existing debates in this field. Here I bring this question to the centre of the discussion through a reflection on the themes, issues and limitations of applied visual anthropology and how, with the ability of design thinking to engage with the future, this might develop. I argue then for a future-oriented applied visual anthropology that engages with the everyday, ethnography and design as processual and situated at the innovative edge of what is possible.