The 1950s restaurant design using two tall yellow arches was known as the Golden Arches.
Architect Stanley Meston created the design for McDonald's restaurants, working with signs and architectural features that would be visible to passing motorists. The arches stood at opposite sides of the building and formed a strong roadside silhouette.
The design was more than decoration. Drive-in restaurants competed for attention from moving cars, so a distinctive building and tall sign could function as an early form of visual branding. The bright yellow arches became associated with McDonald's before they were simplified into the company's corporate logo.
The later logo is often treated as if it had existed unchanged from the beginning. In fact, the physical arches came first, and Jim Schindler adapted them into an M-like mark in 1962. The architectural feature and the later logo are closely related but are not exactly the same object.