Companies like Toyota choose Ito because he helps their bottom line. At just 24, he created a slim molded aluminum bottle for Heineken (HINKY ) that transformed the venerable brewer's beer from dowdy to nightclub chic. Within months of the bottle's launch, Heineken doubled the number of French outlets that carried its aluminum bottles, to 2,000. "We had places like [upscale Paris department store] Bon Marche besieging us with calls. It was unprecedented," says Pascal Gilet, global marketing manager for Heineken, who gave Ito his first contract. The product has since been launched worldwide. Similarly, Ito's 2003 redesign of Paris nightclub Le Cab helped double admissions in one year. Fun-seekers have flocked to see the club's colorful dance floor, mirrored halls, and leather-lined hexagonal alcoves.

The young Frenchman's path to fame and fortune was ingenious, if reckless. At 21, Ito, whose real name is Ito Morabito, decided he couldn't bear spending 10 years inching his way up the career ladder. So the son of well-known Paris fashion designer Pascal Morabito invented the pseudonym Ora Ito to carve out his own identity. Without using his father's money or connections, he set out to excite the design world with an audacious media stunt. He helped pen two articles for the fashionable French magazines Crash and Jalouse, presenting a selection of 3D images of completely made-up products for mega-brands such as Louis Vuitton, Apple Computer, and Levi Strauss & Co.

The response was electric. Within weeks of the first article's publication, Ito's Web site was getting 200,000 visitors a day. A Swiss collector and a host of other watch fans wanted to buy the designer's four imaginary Swatch designs, whose digital red dials and cool curves added a futuristic edge to the company's classic look, even though no such products existed. Customers inundated luxury goods company LVMH Moët Hennessy/Louis Vuitton with calls and store visits in a desperate attempt to buy Ito's proposed monogrammed backpack. A factory in China bestowed the ultimate accolade. It lifted the designs and started churning out counterfeits. "It was wild," recalls Ito, noting that no companies initiated legal action against him because the designs were virtual and well-received by consumers and the brands involved.