Club classics: illustrations of the world's best nightclubs – in pictures

From Berghain to Razzmatazz, Fabric to La Machine, Spanish graphic designer Pablo Benito has created an illustrated homage to his favourite nightclubs around the world

  • The Barcelona-based designer has created a series of prints depicting some of the world’s best nightclubs. This image is of Berlin’s Berghain club, which Benito says is the most spectacular of all the venues he’s visited
    Graphic designer Pablo Benito's image of Berlin’s Berghain nightclub

  • Benito started creating images of clubs after producing a print of Valencia’s Sala Barraca as a present for his mother – the long-running venue, formerly a country house, opened in 1965 and was the first club she ever visited. ‘You can’t compare Barraca with Berghain,’ says Benito. ‘Berghain is industrial, cold and dark while Barraca is rural, organic and in the middle of a rice field. But each club has its own essence’
    Graphic designer Pablo Benito's image of Berlin’s Berghain nightclub Valencia’s Sala Barraca, formerly a country house

  • Sala Apolo in Barcelona, formerly a theatre and now one of the city’s major party spots
    This print by graphic designer Pablo Benito is of Barcelona’s Sala Apolo club

  • Also in Barcelona, Razzmatazz is a huge downtown venue with an industrial feel and five nightclubs in one building. ‘Unconsciously, I’ve always been interested in architecture,’ says Benito. ‘Both its spaces and the experiences one can have in there’
    Graphic designer Pablo Benito image of Razzmatazz, a huge venue in downtown Barcelona

  • Benito prefers clubs that ‘adapt to their surroundings’, as opposed to the big purpose built venues that began to emerge in the late-90s. This print shows the recently closed Trouw club in Amsterdam, which was housed in a former newspaper printworks
    Graphic designer Pablo Benito print of the recently closed Trouw club in Amsterdam

  • Another nightclub to take advantage of a disused space is Tresor in Berlin, a techno club which used to occupy an old department store building.
    Pablo Benito image of Tresor in Berlin, a techno club in an old department store building.

  • London’s Fabric nightclub has also been illustrated by Benito. The 2,500-capacity venue in Farringdon, which features an infamous vibrating ‘bodysonic’ dancefloor, has hosted some of the biggest names in dance music over the last 15 years
    London’s Fabric nightclub in an illustration by Pablo Benito

  • It may be long closed, but New York’s Paradise Garage still features in Benito’s print series. The legendary nightclub, home to DJ Larry Levan, ran from 1977-87 and is considered among the most important venues in the history of dance music
    New York’s Paradise Garage in an illustration by Pablo Benito

  • • Benito’s work is available to purchase at pebestore.com

    With a windmill on the roof, Paris’ La Machine du Moulin Rouge – a nightclub next door to the iconic Moulin Rouge – has one of the most distinctive exteriors in Benito’s series
    La Machine du Moulin Rouge, a nightclub next door to the Moulin Rouge in Paris, illustrated by Pablo Benito
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