In McDonald's branding history, who designed the restaurant's original Golden Arches architecture in 1952?

Stanley Clark Meston designed McDonald's original Golden Arches architecture in 1952.

McDonald's brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald asked Meston to create a highly visible restaurant design for their San Bernardino, California, operation. Meston worked with sign designer Charles R. Watson on the building and its roadside identity. The design used two large yellow arches at opposite sides of the building, visible to passing motorists.

The arches were architectural features before they became the famous corporate logo. Their shape was later simplified and combined into a single emblem. This distinction causes a common mix-up: Meston designed the building's arches, while later McDonald's employees and designers developed the logo used in signs, packaging, and advertising.

The arches helped make the restaurant recognizable from the road, an important advantage in the automobile-oriented food market of the 1950s. McDonald's eventually moved away from the full building design, but retained the arches as its central visual brand.