Name Tags/Bins

I am lucky enough to have big cabinets with shelves and bins in them. This is where my students store they sketchbooks and projects. I used to have them just make any old nametage for the front. 6th graders would spend the most time on it while 8th graders would quickly scribble down their name.
I came up with the idea to make nametags, using postive/negative space and pattern. We usually do it in the beginning of the trimester when I assign bins. I have them do a warm up worksheet, based on Mona Brooks' Drawing for Older Children & Teens book. Then we look at examples and talk about what they see (how the letters go off the page, the patterns, etc.) and I do a demo on how to make "hollow" letters.