Displaying a staic screen (console) either image or text rather that prompting login

I am building a Linux server that I do not want the end user to mess with. I would rather that when the computer first boots up, it displays a splash screen rather than everything it is doing (that would be nice but not necessary) and then at the end when the server is running, to just display either a splash screen, or a formated text display rather than a login prompt. (I know, and most heavy user know they can Alt-f2, 3, 4, 5, 6 to another console for the login, but for console 1, I would like just to display the screen. (I have seen packaged products that do this such as eSoft instagate software). We are maintaining the server remotely (telnet, rsh, ftp etc...) so I do not want to mess up those features, just the initial boot for console 1.

Thanks in advance.