Jim Schindler created McDonald’s familiar stylized Golden Arches logo by joining the two separate arches.
The arches began as physical features of McDonald’s restaurant buildings in the 1950s. Architect Stanley Clark Meston designed the original paired arches for the restaurants, following the McDonald brothers’ desire for a strong roadside visual element. At first, the arches stood separately on opposite sides of the building and functioned mainly as architecture.
In 1962, McDonald’s design consultant Jim Schindler combined the two shapes into a single graphic resembling the letter M. This transformation allowed the arches to work independently of the building and made them suitable for signs, packaging, advertising, and corporate materials.
The logo’s history is therefore often simplified incorrectly. Meston is associated with the original architectural arches, while Schindler is associated with the unified logo mark. The Golden Arches later became one of the world’s most recognizable commercial symbols, even when a McDonald’s building was not visible.