In McDonald's branding history, which architect designed the original pair of yellow restaurant arches in 1952?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the original pair of yellow restaurant arches for McDonald's in 1952.

Meston created the arches as architectural features for the McDonald brothers' San Bernardino restaurant design. Their bright color and tall roadside position made the buildings easy to spot, while their curved shape later supplied the central visual idea for the Golden Arches logo.

The physical arches and the later corporate “M” are related but not identical. Meston designed the buildings' arches; Jim Schindler transformed the paired architectural motif into the logo introduced in 1962. This distinction is one of the most common points of confusion in accounts of McDonald's branding.

The design was important because it made architecture part of the brand before the company had a globally standardized logo. As McDonald's expanded, the arches could function both as a landmark on a building and as a portable symbol in printed and commercial media.