Jim Schindler designed McDonald’s 1962 Golden Arches logo by combining the restaurant’s two architectural arches.
The original arches were not created first as a flat graphic. They were architectural features designed for McDonald’s restaurant buildings, especially to make locations visible to passing drivers. Stanley Clark Meston is credited with designing those building arches.
Schindler’s contribution was to turn the paired forms into a single stylized “M.” That step helped McDonald’s move from a distinctive building design to a portable visual identity used across signs, packaging, and promotional material.
A common mix-up is to credit Meston with the entire logo. Meston designed the physical arches, while Schindler created the recognizable 1962 graphic arrangement based on them.