Stanley Meston designed the Golden Arches for McDonald’s restaurant signs in 1952.
Meston was an architect working with McDonald’s founders Richard and Maurice McDonald as they developed the company’s visual identity. The brothers wanted their new restaurant in San Bernardino, California, to be highly visible from the road. Meston’s design used two large yellow arches on opposite sides of the building.
The arches were initially architectural features rather than a standalone corporate logo. Drivers could recognize the distinctive building even before McDonald’s adopted the arches as its main symbol. This distinction is sometimes missed: the original arches were part of the restaurant’s structure, while later branding turned them into the familiar “M.”
The Golden Arches eventually became one of the world’s best-known commercial symbols. Their later logo treatment was developed separately from Meston’s original architectural work.