Stanley Meston designed the original 1950s McDonald's restaurant building with its two giant arches.
Meston was an architect in Southern California who worked with the McDonald brothers on a new restaurant design. His design used two large yellow arches on opposite sides of the building, making the restaurant visible from the road and giving the brand a distinctive architectural identity.
The arches were initially functional visual elements rather than the unified M-shaped logo seen today. In 1962, McDonald's designer Jim Schindler adapted the idea into the modern corporate symbol.
This distinction explains why both Meston and Schindler appear in histories of the Golden Arches. Meston designed the building; Schindler created the later logo based on its most recognizable feature.