願
Symbols Life
aspiration
ㄩㄢˋ yuàn
Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.
Script
Characters
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
Reaching for something better than where you are. The Chinese words for this centre on the wish rather than on the plan.
Before you commit
Choose with care願 is also the word for a vow made at a temple, so a reader may hear a religious wish rather than a personal ambition.
Pairs well with志願, will and wish together, means one's aspiration and also volunteering. Both readings are honourable.
At small sizesNineteen strokes with a heart at the base. Dense but symmetrical, and it holds its shape better than the stroke count suggests.
Meaning
A wish, a vow; what one hopes for and will work for.
Stronger than a daydream — the wish you would make a vow of.
Other characters for “aspiration”
What to do next
Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.
Related concepts