Jim Schindler redesigned McDonald’s two separate architectural arches into the familiar overlapping “M” logo in 1962.
The original arches were part of the physical restaurant design created for McDonald’s early buildings. Schindler simplified and combined their shapes into a single graphic mark, producing the form that became known as the Golden Arches.
This change mattered because a logo could travel beyond one building. It could appear on signs, packaging, advertisements, uniforms, and printed materials while still identifying the restaurant chain. The simplified mark also made McDonald’s visual identity easier to recognize at a distance.
A frequent confusion is assigning all arch-related design work to one person. Stanley Clark Meston designed the architectural arches, while Jim Schindler created the later graphic version. The two contributions belong to different stages of the brand’s history.