McDonald's called its 1950s restaurant design featuring two large yellow arches the Golden Arches.
The original arches were architectural structures placed at the sides of McDonald's restaurants. They were designed by architect Stanley Meston for the 1953 restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, and were intended to make the building visible from the road. Their bright color and unusual shape helped distinguish the restaurants in a landscape dominated by roadside businesses.
The arches later became more than a building feature. In 1962, designer Jim Schindler combined the two forms into the stylized “M” used as McDonald's corporate logo. The logo therefore grew from a recognizable architectural idea into a compact graphic symbol.
The Golden Arches are often treated as if they began as a logo. Historically, the physical arches came first; the modern emblem was a later branding development.