Work / Web App / Escape

Bounties · Live · 2026

Escape.

A bounty framework for hiring creatives, funding briefs, and paying the work.

I built Escape Bounty inside the live marketplace — projects, mood boards, entries, shortlists, job assignments, and Paystack escrow — and kept the rest of the product in working order: Escape Hub, the marketplace, EscapeMag, and the vendor, investor, manufacturer, and admin surfaces. Live app: escape-hq.com

Visit escape-hq.com → The bounty loop

Admin

Escape Hub

Marketplace

Project

Bounty framework

App

Next.js 15

API

Express

Year

2026

Product · Escape Bounty

Hire the work.
Fund the brief.

Bounty is the loop between a hirer and a creative — post a brief, enter it, get shortlisted, then get paid from escrow.

Projects can be a single winner, several winners, role-based crews, or a grant. Creatives submit on a mood board, as a file, or as a link. Hirers view, shortlist, and select. Winners accept an assignment before the job moves into execution.

Money sits in escrow until release — full payout or milestone — with Paystack for automated funding and transfer. The same Next.js and Express app still runs Escape Hub, commerce, and EscapeMag around it.

project types — single, multi, role, grant

creative disciplines, from stylist to producer

submission formats — board, file, link

Escrow

fund, hold, milestone release, payout

The framework

Four moves.
One bounty.

Prisma models the whole loop — profiles, projects, roles, entries, submissions, assignments, escrow ledger, and notifications — so a brief cannot pay out before it is funded.

01 / Briefs

Post the
work

A hirer opens a draft, sets remote or physical, picks a budget tier, and chooses single-winner, multi-winner, role-based, or grant. The brief stays awaiting funds until escrow is marked funded, then opens.

Draft Roles Grant

02 / Entries

Submit &
shortlist

Creatives enter, then submit a board, a file, or a link. Hirers mark work viewed, shortlist it, and select winners. Status runs from entered through submitted, viewed, shortlisted, and selected.

Board Shortlist Select

03 / Escrow

Hold the
money

Funds move unfunded, funded, held, partially released, or released. Release is full or by milestone. Paystack can initialise and confirm escrow, then retry a failed payout.

Paystack Milestone Ledger

04 / Jobs

Assign &
pay

A selected entry becomes an assignment the creative accepts, works, and completes. Payout status tracks bank details through paid or failed. XP, a leaderboard, and in-app notices sit on the same profile.

Accept Payout XP

Visual language

Black shell.
Orange action.

01 — The Product

One admin.
Many desks.

Bounties sit beside Escape Hub, vendor, investor, and manufacturer desks. The orange mark stays the action colour across hub, magazine, and marketplace.

02 — The Palette

Orange on
near-black.

Primary actions use #FF6B35. Cards sit on charcoal. The rest of the shell stays black so magazine covers and product photos carry the colour.

#FF6B35

#000000

#111111

#F97316

#181818

#EDE8E0

#1A1A1A

#7A7671

03 — Typography

Plain labels.
Sharp titles.

Tool cards use a compact sans for names and a quieter line for the job. Section labels stay uppercase and tracked, the same rhythm as CAREER tools elsewhere in the hub.

Escape.

Display · Serif

Bounties · Post a brief

Interface · Sans

OPEN · SELECTION · IN EXECUTION

Status · Mono

The wider app

Kept
running.

Bounty shipped inside a product that already had a hub, a magazine, a shop, and a blog. Those surfaces stayed live while the framework landed.

Escape admin dashboard including Bounties

Admin Control tower

EscapeMag Issue reader

Hub Your feed

Featured products on the Escape marketplace

Marketplace Featured products

Implementation

The stack
under it.

Next.js on the front, Express and Prisma on the API, Postgres for the ledger, Redis beside it.

01 / App

Next.js 15
surfaces

The bounty UI lives in the same App Router frontend as the hub and admin: sidebars, cover cropping, vendor payments, and pending role offers.

Next.jsTypeScriptReact Query

02 / API

Express
routes

A dedicated bounty router covers public project lists, creative and brand dashboards, entries, selection, invites, and admin pause, resume, fund, and release.

ExpressJWTJoi

03 / Data

Prisma
Postgres

Profiles, projects, roles, entries, submissions, assignments, milestones, and an escrow ledger are first-class models, with Redis for the wider app cache.

PrismaPostgresRedis

04 / Money

Paystack
escrow

Manual fund and release sit next to flagged auto-escrow: initialise, confirm, retain a fee, release a milestone, refund, and retry a payout.

PaystackEscrowPayouts

Escape.

Hire the work.Fund the brief.

Four moves.One bounty.

Post thework

Submit &shortlist

Hold themoney

Assign &pay

Black shell.Orange action.

One admin.Many desks.

Orange onnear-black.

Plain labels.Sharp titles.

Keptrunning.

The stackunder it.

Next.js 15surfaces

Expressroutes

PrismaPostgres

Paystackescrow

Open thelive hub.

Hire the work.
Fund the brief.

Four moves.
One bounty.

Post the
work

Submit &
shortlist

Hold the
money

Assign &
pay

Black shell.
Orange action.

One admin.
Many desks.

Orange on
near-black.

Plain labels.
Sharp titles.

Kept
running.

The stack
under it.

Next.js 15
surfaces

Express
routes

Prisma
Postgres

Paystack
escrow

Open the
live hub.