Who designed the original McDonald’s restaurant with its distinctive red-and-white tile exterior?

Architect Stanley Clark Meston designed the McDonald’s restaurant associated with the distinctive red-and-white tile exterior and Golden Arches.

Meston worked with the McDonald brothers and sign-maker George Dexter on the design for their San Bernardino restaurant. The building used bright red-and-white ceramic tile, a sloped roof, and two tall yellow arches visible from the road.

The arches were initially architectural features rather than the company’s standalone logo. Their roadside visibility made them powerful identifiers, however, and McDonald’s eventually transformed the pair into the famous “M” symbol used worldwide.

Meston is sometimes confused with Jim Schindler, who created the later interlocking Golden Arches logo in 1962. Ray Kroc was the franchise and corporate expansion figure, not the architect of the original restaurant design. The exterior’s visual language began with Meston’s building work.