A profile in the Daily Mail blames it on an assignment to design a toilet

Ive at Walton High School, Stafford. Via the Daily Mail

Lots of new details about the man it calls "the most successful designer on the planet" in Rob Waugh's long biographical profile of Jonathan ("Jony") Ive in Sunday's Daily Mail, starting with the toilet design that drove him out of England:

"The manner of his departure for the U.S. is particularly galling to Clive Grinyer, who first hired Ive after he came to work with him on a placement from Newcastle Polytechnic. It came after a presentation of an Ive design to a bathroom-fittings company in Hull.

"'We lost a great talent,' says Grinyer. 'We virtually created our own consultancy, Tangerine, just so that we could employ Jony (as Ive prefers to be called). And if I had to put my finger on why and where we lost him it would have to have been one day at Ideal Standard in Hull.

"'Tangerine had a consultancy contract with the bathroom-fittings company to design a toilet. I was there when Jony made an excellent presentation to this guy who was wearing a red nose because it was Comic Relief day. This clown then decided to throw his weight around and pulled apart Jony's design. It was ridiculous. Britain lost Jony Ive then and there.'"