Who designed McDonald's 1962 logo featuring the Golden Arches forming an “M”?

Jim Schindler designed McDonald's 1962 logo featuring the Golden Arches forming an “M.”

Schindler combined the two architectural arches associated with McDonald's restaurants into a single graphic mark. The result transformed a building feature into a compact corporate symbol that could appear on signs, packaging, uniforms, and advertising.

The arches had been used on restaurant buildings before 1962, particularly in designs associated with architect Stanley Meston. The 1962 logo was a separate step: it turned those physical arches into a unified emblem and added a diagonal line through the center in the original design.

This history creates a common mix-up between Meston, who designed the influential 1950s restaurant architecture, and Schindler, who created the later graphic logo. The logo's form was subsequently simplified and modified, but the golden arches remained McDonald's defining visual signature.