Which 1960s McDonald’s branding symbol became known as the Golden Arches?

The arch-shaped restaurant signs became known as McDonald’s Golden Arches.

The original arches were large architectural features placed at the sides of McDonald’s restaurant buildings. Their bright color and unusual shape made the restaurants easy to see from roads, which was valuable when the chain depended heavily on automobile traffic.

In 1962, the arches were adapted into the company’s stylized logo. The two arches formed an “M,” allowing the architectural feature to work as a compact corporate symbol on signs, packaging, advertising, and later digital media.

The Golden Arches are therefore not the same thing as the “M” in a typographic sense alone. The logo’s identity comes from the arches’ architectural origin and their transformation into a global brand mark.