Thomas Messina - President/CEO/BMOC

Background:
Tom Messina was born in Fayettville, North Carolina. Soon after his birth he moved to Long Island, New York, where he spent his growing years. Messina comes from a long line of artists, mostly sculptures, learning and weilding their craft in Italy, where part of his family still dwells. Always having an interest in pen and pencil illustration, Messina attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y where he majored in Fine Arts. While at Pratt, he began work in realist and abstract painting, in both watercolors and acrylics. He still remains eclectic and versitile in his choice of mediums today.

Family:
In 1975 Messina married his wife Gayle, with whom he has raised 2 children, both boys. The Messina's now have two grandchildren. He and his wife are both local residents of Pine Island, Florida, having moved here in 1991.

Hobbies & Interests:
Messina has always had a calling to water, which explains his love of fishing, boating and canoeing. On top of being an avid outdoorsman he loves chess and working with computers.

Professional Background:
Messina is the president of Total Concept, Inc., a graphic arts studio located at 4632 Vincennes Blvd, Cape Coral, Florida. Blending his love of the arts and technology, Messina opened the business in 1980 after working as an art director and designer in New York for 2 years.

Parting Words:
" Just because you have 64 crayons in a box, doesn't mean you have to use all of them"-Tom Messina

Raymond Daugherty Jr. - Business Employee

Background:
Born in Fort Myers, Florida in 1976, Raymond has been in Florida for the past 32 years. Upon graduating North Fort Myers High school in 1994, he decided it was time to conqure the world, but soon realized he needed to set his plans to a much smaller scale. Moving up to Tampa, Raymond earned his Associates in Science degree for Commercial Art, graduating there within the top 5% of his class.

In 1997, Raymond began his career with Total Concept, Inc. and has been a loyal follower of "the man" ever since, taking part in everything from all-night work "parties" to meet deadlines, to helping clients, to designing/coding SouthwestFlorida.com and some of the sites that make-up the the vast Southwest Florida Network of Sites.

Hobbies & Interests:
At one point in time, Raymond was an aspiring comic book artist (being accepted into the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Arts, but unable to attend). An avid worker, Raymond still gets unequaled enjoyment sitting behind his drawing table until the wee hours of the morning, only to fall asleep, and wake up in the morning stuck to the table, and having graphite smeared across his face.

Favorite Book: Dante's "The Divine Comedy"

Parting Words:
"If it itches, scratch it. If it moves and itches again, get cream."
- Raymond Daugherty