McDonald’s famous Golden Arches logo uses yellow arches against a red field.
The arches began as architectural features of McDonald’s restaurants rather than as an abstract logo. Architect Stanley Meston designed the distinctive golden arches for the company’s 1953 restaurant in Downey, California. Their bright color made the buildings visible from roads and helped distinguish McDonald’s locations.
The arches were combined into the familiar letter-M symbol in the 1960s, when McDonald’s moved toward a more unified corporate identity. The logo’s red-and-yellow palette became strongly associated with the chain’s signs, packaging, advertising, and restaurant interiors.
The yellow arches are sometimes described simply as “the M,” but their name preserves their architectural origin. They are also different from the restaurant’s earlier single-arch building designs. Although McDonald’s has used variations in different markets and campaigns, yellow and red remain the classic colors most closely tied to the brand.