The Golden Arches were added to McDonald's restaurant signs in the 1950s before becoming a logo.
Architect Stanley Meston designed the original arches as part of a new restaurant building concept for McDonald's. The large yellow structures were intended to make the restaurants visible to passing motorists and to give the buildings a distinctive silhouette. They were physical architectural features rather than a corporate logo at first.
The arches later became central to McDonald's visual identity. In 1962, Jim Schindler adapted the two arches into the stylized M used as the company's logo. That change explains why the term can refer both to actual building elements and to the graphic symbol recognized worldwide.
A common mix-up is treating the Golden Arches as a logo from their first appearance. Their history began with restaurant architecture, and only later did the company turn the paired arches into a standardized emblem.