I Love McDonald's

Black text and red heart on white background.

The first McDonald's restaurant - "McDonald's Bar-B-Q" - was established by brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald in 1940 in San Bernardino, California.  After realizing that hamburgers were the product that made them the most profit, the brothers perfected a streamlined assembly line system in their restaurant to sell a simple menu of burgers, fries, drinks and apple pie and in 1948, changed the name of the restaurant to simply "McDonald's".

The McDonald brothers began to franchise their business in 1953 but it wasn't until Ray Kroc - a businessman and milkshake machine company owner from Chicago - got involved, that the franchise took off on a national and then international scale. Ray Kroc noticed the potential in the franchise and opened his own branch in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955 and established the rights to set up McDonald's restaurants across the US.  Kroc went on to buy the McDonald's brothers out of their stake in the business and lead the company to worldwide expansion.

Today, McDonald's is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, with restaurants in over 110 countries across the world.

This is a variation of the I heart NY logo that was created in 1977 by Milton Glaser for an ad campaign created by advertising agency Wells Rich Greene. The marketing campaign was sought by then-Deputy Commissioner William S. Doyle to increase tourism in the state of New York. The campaign was a wild success. The original sketch of the logo is permanently on display at the MOMA.

The logo has become iconic in pop-culture and has been imitated in many forms around the world.