Who designed McDonald’s original roadside arches for the restaurant building in 1952?

Stanley Clark Meston designed McDonald’s original roadside arches for the restaurant building in 1952.

Meston was an architect working with the McDonald brothers on a new restaurant design in San Bernardino, California. The building used two large yellow arches, one on each side, so motorists could recognize the restaurant from a distance. The arches were structural and decorative features before they became a corporate logo.

The design helped McDonald’s stand out in the era of roadside restaurants, where visibility and quick recognition were important. The arches were not initially conceived as the exact M-shaped emblem used today. In 1962, graphic designer Jim Schindler transformed the two architectural forms into a joined logo.

People sometimes credit Ray Kroc with the arches because he expanded McDonald’s nationally. Kroc was central to the company’s growth, but Meston is associated with the original building design, while Schindler is associated with the later logo form.