Who designed McDonald’s first Golden Arches restaurant signs?

Architect Stanley Meston designed McDonald’s first Golden Arches restaurant signs.

Meston worked with McDonald’s co-founder Richard McDonald on the design for a new restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1952. The two large yellow arches were intended to make the building visible to passing motorists and to give the restaurant a distinctive roadside silhouette.

The arches were originally architectural features at opposite ends of the building, not a joined letter M. Their bright yellow color and exaggerated scale made them effective signs before McDonald’s developed its modern corporate identity. This is why the arches began as part of the building itself rather than as a separate logo.

Later, McDonald’s converted the two arches into the familiar “M” symbol. Stanley Meston is therefore linked to the original architectural concept, while other designers were responsible for subsequent logo refinements. The Golden Arches became one of the world’s most recognizable examples of commercial branding.