What type of symbol is the McDonald’s Golden Arches in the company’s visual identity?

The McDonald’s Golden Arches are a stylized letter M in the company’s visual identity.

The symbol developed from the two yellow arches used on McDonald’s restaurant buildings. When viewed together, the arches form an M, linking the company’s architectural history with its modern graphic identity. The mark is commonly called the Golden Arches because of its shape and golden-yellow color.

The logo’s meaning is often simplified as merely “two arches,” but its corporate role depends on the combined form reading as the initial of McDonald’s. That simple silhouette works on roadside signs, food packaging, advertising, and digital materials.

Stanley Clark Meston designed the original building arches in 1952, while Jim Schindler created the unified logo in 1962. Those are related but different stages of the branding story: one architectural, the other graphic.