Who designed the original McDonald’s restaurant arches?

Stanley Meston designed the original McDonald’s restaurant arches.

Meston was an architect hired to help create a distinctive look for the McDonald brothers’ restaurants. His design used large yellow arches on the sides of the buildings, making the locations highly visible to passing motorists.

The arches were architectural elements before they became the company’s signature emblem. Their shape was later adapted into the stylized “M” associated with McDonald’s around the world.

Ray Kroc is sometimes credited with the arches because he expanded McDonald’s nationally, but he did not design the original structure. Jim Schindler is associated with the later logo design, not the initial architectural concept.