Red and white dominated McDonald's restaurant branding before the modern yellow-and-red palette became standard.
Early McDonald's restaurants used red-and-white color schemes on signs, buildings, and other visual elements. The colors helped the restaurants stand out from the roadside and matched the strong graphic style of mid-century American commercial architecture.
Yellow was already important because of the Golden Arches, but later restaurant branding increasingly paired the arches' yellow with red backgrounds and accents. That combination became one of the chain's most recognizable visual signatures.
Color descriptions can vary by location and period because franchise restaurants used different building designs and sign formats. The key historical distinction is between the early red-and-white presentation and the later red-and-yellow identity centered on the arches.