Which architect designed the distinctive Golden Arches for McDonald's early restaurants?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the distinctive Golden Arches for McDonald's early restaurants.

Meston was an architect based in Southern California who worked with McDonald's brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald on the design of their new self-service restaurant. The brothers wanted a building that could be recognized quickly from the road.

The original concept used two large yellow arches as architectural features at opposite ends of the building. A later visual redesign combined those arches into the familiar M-shaped symbol. The arches therefore began as physical restaurant architecture before becoming a corporate logo.

Ray Kroc later expanded McDonald's nationally, but he did not design the original arches. Jim Schindler is associated with the later graphic treatment that turned the two arches into a unified logo.