Who designed the original Golden Arches for McDonald’s restaurant buildings?

Stanley Meston designed the original Golden Arches for McDonald’s restaurant buildings.

Meston was an architect who worked with McDonald’s founders Richard and Maurice McDonald on the restaurant’s distinctive roadside design. The brothers wanted a building that motorists could recognize quickly, so the design included two large yellow arches projecting from opposite sides of the structure.

The arches first appeared as physical architectural features rather than as the familiar unified “M” logo. Their bright color and oversized scale made them visible from the road, helping the restaurant stand out in the early drive-in era. This is why the arches began as part of the building’s identity before becoming a corporate symbol.

A common mix-up is crediting Ray Kroc, who expanded McDonald’s through franchising, or Jim Schindler, who later developed the logo form. Meston’s role was the architectural design of the original arches, while later designers turned the idea into a standardized emblem.