McDonald’s introduced its Golden Arches logo in 1962.
The logo was designed by Jim Schindler, who combined the two yellow architectural arches used at many McDonald’s restaurants. The resulting “M” gave the company a distinctive visual mark that could be recognized from a distance.
The arches had appeared in restaurant architecture before 1962, so the logo did not emerge from nowhere. Their transformation into a unified symbol helped shift McDonald’s branding from an individual restaurant design feature to a national corporate identity.
A common mix-up is confusing the first use of arches on buildings with the introduction of the familiar logo. The arches were architectural elements in the 1950s, while the recognizable logo dates to 1962. The design was later simplified, but its basic form remained central to McDonald’s identity.