What symbol became McDonald's best-known logo after the Golden Arches were joined in 1962?

The Golden Arches became McDonald's best-known logo after the two arches were joined in 1962.

The arches began as architectural features on McDonald's restaurants in the 1950s. Architect Stanley Clark Meston designed the distinctive yellow arches for the San Bernardino restaurant, and the form was intended to be visible to passing motorists. Their strong shape and color made them useful as roadside identification.

In 1962, Jim Schindler combined the two arches into the familiar M-shaped symbol. The design gradually became more important than the buildings themselves and eventually served as the company's primary visual identifier around the world.

People sometimes use “Golden Arches” to mean only the physical restaurant structures. In branding history, the term also refers to the logo derived from those structures, which can appear without a McDonald's wordmark.