Who transformed McDonald’s two arches into the recognizable M-shaped logo?

Jim Schindler transformed McDonald’s two arches into the recognizable M-shaped logo.

McDonald’s restaurants originally used separate golden arches as architectural elements. In the early 1960s, company designer Jim Schindler combined the visual forms into a single emblem resembling the letter M. This made the arches useful not only as building features but also as a portable corporate symbol.

The resulting mark helped create a consistent identity across restaurant signs, packaging, advertisements, and other branded materials. It eventually became one of the most recognizable commercial logos in the world.

The architect Stanley Clark Meston is often confused with Schindler because Meston designed the original arches as building elements. Their roles were different: Meston created the architectural concept, while Schindler adapted the arches into the famous logo form.