Who designed the two yellow arches that inspired McDonald’s Golden Arches logo?

Stanley Clark Meston designed the two yellow arches that inspired McDonald’s Golden Arches logo.

Meston was an architect who worked on the design of the McDonald brothers’ new restaurant in San Bernardino, California. In 1952, he developed the building design featuring large yellow arches at either side of the restaurant, making the structure visible from the road.

The arches were originally architectural elements rather than a standalone corporate logo. Their strong shape later became the basis of McDonald’s most famous visual symbol. In 1962, designer Jim Schindler combined the arches into the familiar M-shaped mark.

A common mix-up is crediting Ray Kroc with designing the arches. Kroc helped expand McDonald’s nationally, but Meston designed the original architectural arches. The Golden Arches concept later became so closely associated with McDonald’s that the symbol could identify the company without any lettering.