Which architect designed the original arches on McDonald’s restaurants?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the original arches on McDonald’s restaurants.

Meston was hired in the 1950s to help create the modern restaurant design used for McDonald’s expanding chain. His work included the distinctive yellow arches positioned at the sides of the building. The arches were intended to make the restaurants stand out to passing motorists, an important consideration in the era of car-oriented roadside dining.

The architectural arches came before the familiar logo. In 1962, McDonald’s combined the two arches into an “M”-shaped corporate mark, transforming a building feature into a brand symbol. That distinction explains why Meston is associated with the arches even though he did not create every later version of the logo.

Meston is sometimes confused with Jim Schindler, who worked on the later graphic logo. Meston designed the architectural form; Schindler helped turn it into the emblem used in corporate branding.