(Silly)Question about a specific tool...

First off, I apologize if this is one of those DUH questions, but I am not a scholar of Photoshop (yet...lol):

Ok, seen these logos? :

My question is: How exactly do I go about making a round shape(Or any shape really) and then cutting out swathes or sections of it to make stuff like the above? (Am I even using the correct terminology?)

I used to have Illustrator 7 and I remember the stuff I had to access in order to do that (merge/cut I think?) but with Cs4, everything is so diferent....Where in Photoshop are the controls to merge/cut/slice whatever (If those are even the ones)???

I know there are tutorials online, but I can't even find those cuz I don't know what terms to use in order to get to them...

Thanks so much for your help//

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(Silly)Question about a specific tool...

To draw a circle there are detailed instructions in the help file under circle.

To get the ''cut-outs'' you can draw circles or lines with the background color to make it look like your examples.

Many other ways to do it, but start simple.

(Silly)Question about a specific tool...

Play around with the pen tool set to draw shapes, and the different path modes in the options bar.