Red and yellow became McDonald’s most strongly associated logo colors after the 1960s.
The combination is commonly seen in the Golden Arches logo, restaurant signs, packaging, uniforms, and advertising. Yellow provides a bright, highly visible treatment for the arches, while red supplies a contrasting field or supporting brand color.
McDonald’s had used yellow arches as architectural elements before the modern color system became standardized. The interlocking-arches logo developed in 1962 gave the company a compact graphic mark that could be reproduced across signs and printed materials. Red-and-yellow applications then helped create a consistent visual identity across restaurants and marketing.
Individual markets and design eras have used alternate treatments, including versions with white, black, green, or other supporting colors. Those variations do not replace the classic pairing in popular brand recognition. The color combination is therefore a branding association, not a claim that every McDonald’s sign has always used exactly the same layout.