Which McDonald's brand mark replaced the separate arches on the company's 1962 logo?

The unified Golden Arches M replaced the separate arches on McDonald's 1962 logo.

The original restaurant architecture used two arches positioned at opposite sides of a building. McDonald's later combined their visual forms into a single M-shaped emblem, allowing the brand to use the arches independently of a restaurant's physical design.

This was an important step in turning architecture into corporate identity. A unified mark could appear on menus, cups, signs, advertisements, and other materials with the same recognizable silhouette.

The change is sometimes described simply as the creation of the Golden Arches, although the arches existed before 1962. More precisely, the 1962 development unified the separate architectural arches into the logo form associated with McDonald's today.