Jim Schindler was the McDonald's designer who joined the two arches into an “M” in 1962.
The Golden Arches began as architectural features on McDonald's restaurant buildings. In 1962, Jim Schindler combined the visual forms of the two arches into a single logo that resembled the letter M. This change transformed a building design element into a portable corporate symbol suitable for signs, packaging, advertising, and printed material.
The logo's history is sometimes reduced to the claim that the arches were invented as a logo in 1962. In fact, the architectural arches appeared earlier, and the 1962 design consolidated them into the emblem now associated with McDonald's. Stanley Clark Meston is linked to the earlier restaurant architecture, not the final joined-logo design.
The Golden Arches later became one of the world's most recognizable commercial symbols and remained central even as McDonald's changed slogans and advertising styles.