The original 1962 Golden Arches logo used gold, the color that gave the symbol its name.
The arches had already been used as bright yellow architectural elements on McDonald’s restaurants. Their strong visibility helped motorists identify the restaurants, especially when the buildings stood beside busy roads. When the two arches were combined into the stylized M, the color remained central to the visual identity.
Modern McDonald’s branding often places the golden arches against red, black, white, or other backgrounds, which can make people remember the surrounding color rather than the arches themselves. Red is strongly associated with McDonald’s signs and packaging, but it is not the color named by “Golden Arches.” The logo’s gold tone is the defining color of the symbol.