Stanley Meston designed the original Golden Arches for McDonald’s first purpose-built restaurant in 1953.
Meston was an architect working with restaurant operator Richard McDonald on the restaurant in Downey, California. The building used two tall yellow arches at opposite ends, making the restaurant visible to passing motorists.
Those early arches were architectural features rather than the company’s later standalone logo. In 1962, the arches were combined into the familiar M-shaped corporate symbol, a change often associated with logo designer Jim Schindler.
A common mix-up is to credit Ray Kroc with designing the arches. Kroc expanded McDonald’s through franchising, but the original architectural concept came from the McDonald brothers’ restaurant project and Meston’s design work.