Hydra I by Jo Hammerborg

Danish lighting designer Johannes (Jo) Hammerborg was born in Randers, Denmark in 1920. He trained as a silversmith in Silkeborg and Randers between 1942 and 1944. He went on to attend the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. From 1949 to 1957, he worked as a silversmith for noted Danish silver brand Georg Jensen. 

In 1957, Hammerborg became head of design at Danish lighting company Fog & Mørup. He brought with him a strong modern design sensibility, a strategy for a cohesive brand identity, as well as strict new production requirements for all of the brand’s pieces. Hammerborg’s tenure at the company was both artistically and commercially successful. While there, he designed over 60 lamps and pendants and collaborated with several designers, helping adapt their work to meet the brand’s stringent new manufacturing requirements. He was also intimately involved in the brand’s collaborations with porcelain manufacturer Royal Copenhagen and Holmegaard glassworks. Hammerborg’s own lights earned him multiple honors, including a 1965 CICi first prize for Nova and four iF Product Design Awards in 1969 for Tunika, Classic, Diskos and Saturn designs.

He remained at Fog & Mørup until 1980, when he left to establish his own lighting company.  Following his departure, the company underwent a series of mergers that ultimately led to its demise.

In 1982, Hammerborg—an avid airborne sports enthusiast—passed away tragically at the age of 62 in a skydiving accident on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. 

Danish modern lighting manufacturing company Fog & Mørup was founded by Ansgar Fog (1880 to 1930) and Erik Mørup (1879-1972) in Aarhus, Denmark in 1904. In its first incarnation, the company operated as a metalwork wholesaler. In 1906, the pair moved to Copenhagen and began to focus on lighting production, over the years buying up a number of electrical and lighting companies. The company continued to expand steadily through World War II. One of the most successful Fog & Mørup products from the pre-war era was the Kongelys Lamp, named for the Danish King Christian X in honor of his 25th jubilee in 1937.

After the war—especially in the 1960s and ’70s—Fog & Mørup’s international reputation reached new heights. In 1959, Johannes (Jo) Hammerborg(1920-1982) joined as head of design and introduced modernist design principles to the Fog & Mørup collections. Streamlined, sleek forms become the company’s signature aesthetic, which was expressed in a range of lamps, pendants, and sconces designed by Hammerborg and other outside designers, like Jørgen Bo, Sophus Frandsen, and Torsten Thorup. Standout designs include the Semi Pendant by Thorup and Claus Bonderup (1967); the Falcon Pendant by Andreas Hansen (1967); and the Nova Pendant (1963), Trombone Lamp (ca. 1966), and Copper Kastor collection (ca. 1969-71) by Hammerborg.

In 1978, Fog & Mørup merged with leading Danish modern lighting manufacturer Lyfa, and Hammerborg retired in 1980. Through the course of the remaining years of the 20th century, the once pioneering Danish lighting brand lost steam as the company changed hands again and again. In 2005, following its final acquisition by Nordlux of Ålborg, Fog & Mørup official closed.