Create fancy stuff in Photoshop with this one weird trick!

Quick: How would you draw that glyph on the left? How about that icon on the right? Tons of masks? Well then I've got news for you!

This is a technique that I first found when working on some of those monochrome OS X sidebar icons but it's just as useful for flat iOS 7 glyphs. Basically it's a much easier way to create transparent icons with various effects and intersecting elements than having to mask out all see-through areas (such as the gap around the +).

See the attached How-To for an overview of the process and of course dig into the example PSDs to see how it actually behaves (move stuff around, change styles, etc). I think it's incredibly handy and flexible.