McDonald's restaurants began using the Golden Arches prominently after the company's 1952 redesign.
Architect Stanley Clark Meston and his assistants designed the new restaurant look for McDonald's. The building used two large yellow arches at opposite sides of the structure, making the restaurants visible from the road and giving them a distinctive architectural identity.
The arches were originally part of the building design rather than a separate corporate emblem. As McDonald's expanded, the shape became increasingly important in signs, packaging, and advertising. The two arches were later combined into the familiar letter-M symbol.
People sometimes assume the Golden Arches were created as a logo from the beginning. Their history began with roadside architecture, and their later transformation into a corporate mark helped make McDonald's branding recognizable worldwide.