McDonald's introduced the stylized Golden Arches logo as a letter M in 1962.
The logo developed from the large yellow arches used on McDonald's restaurant buildings during the 1950s. Those structures were designed to attract motorists and make locations easy to identify from a distance. At first, the arches functioned mainly as architectural signs.
McDonald's design consultant Jim Schindler joined the two arches into a single graphic mark in 1962. The result resembled a rounded, golden letter M and could be reproduced consistently across different media. It became a major step toward a unified national identity.
The logo is often confused with the date of the first restaurant arches or with later changes to the wordmark. The year 1962 specifically identifies the creation of the combined M symbol. The Golden Arches then became closely associated with the McDonald's name worldwide.