Who designed the original McDonald’s restaurant arches that inspired the logo?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the original McDonald’s restaurant arches that inspired the logo.

Meston was an architect who worked with assistant Charles Fish on the design of the McDonald brothers’ distinctive restaurant buildings. The buildings used large yellow arches as prominent roadside features, making them visible to passing motorists.

These structures were not initially the familiar single “M” logo. They were separate architectural arches placed at the sides of the building. In 1962, McDonald’s executive Jim Schindler adapted the idea into the unified Golden Arches symbol.

This distinction explains a common branding mix-up: Meston designed the physical arches, while Schindler designed the later graphic logo. The architectural form helped McDonald’s establish a recognizable visual identity before the company expanded into a global chain.