What was the name of McDonald's first major restaurant design, introduced in 1953?

McDonald's first major restaurant design, introduced in 1953, was the Red and White design.

The Red and White restaurants used bold red-and-white exteriors and prominent golden arches to make roadside locations easy to spot. Architect Stanley Clark Meston developed the design for the McDonald brothers, helping turn a local restaurant format into a repeatable visual identity. The building's appearance became an important part of McDonald's early branding before the logo alone carried most of the recognition.

The design is sometimes confused with the later “M” logo. The physical arches appeared on restaurants before Jim Schindler created the overlapping Golden Arches logo in 1962. The restaurant architecture and corporate symbol are related, but they are not the same design milestone.

Red-and-White buildings became especially associated with the postwar American roadside landscape. Although many were later replaced or remodeled, surviving examples are valued for showing how McDonald's used architecture, color, and visibility as coordinated branding tools.