Who redesigned McDonald’s two arches into the familiar M-shaped logo?

Jim Schindler redesigned McDonald’s separate Golden Arches into the familiar M-shaped logo in 1962.

The original arches were part of the restaurant’s architecture. They stood separately at either side of the building and were intended to be visible to passing motorists. As McDonald’s expanded, the company needed a simpler graphic that could work on signs, packaging, stationery, and advertising.

Schindler, who worked in McDonald’s design department, combined the two arch shapes into a single stylized M. The result retained the visual identity of the buildings while making the symbol easier to reproduce across different media. The design became a major step in turning the arches from architectural decoration into a global corporate mark.

This history is often simplified by saying that the Golden Arches were always the logo. They were not: the early arches were physical structures, and the unified M came later. Stanley Meston is associated with the building design, while Schindler is associated with the 1962 logo adaptation.