This ended up being the cover of the magazine. I tried to incorporate many themes from the magazine's articles into the picture, like a sun for the general summer theme, a computer for an article about IT management, a book for a book review and so on.
As for the scribbly style: I was about halfway through coloring the whole thing with Adobe Illustrator before everyone on the team said they prefer the scribbly style of the sketch to clean lines and extensive shading. I think it looks cute though!

Please do not use this character.