Surgical Files

by Zack Butler and Stephen Peters
Answer: HEMPEL

The compressed tarfile, when opened, displays a set of 18 strangely-named files. A programmer can combine these files, using simple operations, to create a set of 9 images. The same operations can also be performed on the strange filenames, to reveal the names of the image files. The resulting 9 files are:

Filename	Operation
beneath.tif	Take 2 bytes of '%"'t+f%{.:)<+x X7H2s F', treat it as an big-ended unsigned short, and divide it by one byte of 'ade_z[k4z{Q'
borealis.svg	Divide 'roblae.sigvs' into four equal parts, and reverse each of them.
bottomright.eps	Interleave the bytes in 'boge','trts', and 'otmih.p', in ABCBABC... order
center.jpg	Reverse the middle four bits of every byte in 'GevleN6VLg'
northeast.ppm	Add together the bytes in '2,B(+-)IJ?CDE' and '<C0L=88**%-,('
occidental.gif	Interleave the bytes in 'ocdna.i', with those in 'fglteic' taken in reverse order
starboard.png	XOR together the bytes in '2B,X-5ZC.qA1.' and 'A6M*OZ;1J_1_I'
sw.pdf	Add one to every byte in 'rv-oce', modulo 256
up-and-left.bmp	Take a bitwise AND of the bytes in 'uxoqolm~}nv?rmx', 'wv=i~|}mmgu>jov', and '}qmgng?ngv~oc}q'

Taking the images and arranging them in a 3x3 grid according to the filenames gives a maze with letters on it:

Finding the correct path through the maze yields the phrase LEGO MAZEWALKER DESIGN GROUP. The Lego Mazewalker is designed by the Hempel Design Group, so the answer is HEMPEL.