McDonald's first Golden Arches logo in 1962 used a gold-and-red color combination.
The logo adapted the restaurant chain's architectural arches into a stylized M and paired the golden symbol with a red background or field. The high-contrast treatment made the mark easy to recognize from roads and helped turn restaurant signage into a powerful national branding device.
Modern McDonald's uses several visual treatments, including yellow arches on red, arches without a background, and versions paired with the McDonald's wordmark. These variations can make the historical color question seem less precise than it is. The answer refers to the original 1962 logo combination, not every later application.
The color choice also reflected the practical needs of roadside restaurant advertising. Red and yellow remained highly visible at distance and became closely associated with the company. Although the logo has been simplified and redesigned in details over the decades, the basic golden symbol and red association remain fundamental to McDonald's identity.