For a while, i have known how to make decent maps with entities (Doors, buttons, effects, explosions, some scripted events, etc.) But the problem is, i’m lacking in the creativity department. I don’t want to make a map that just copies something that really exists, i want to make something completely original.
So, where do you guys get inspiration?
You said Department. So make a Department store.
Oh wow, thanks
If you don’t want anything that exists in reality, you’ll need to use your imagination
It’s a shock, i know.
Was that sarcasm? Because I don’t want to get bitched at for providing what you asked.
No, it’s a serious statement
Try making a map similar to the HL2 Coast maps.
Look around, go into the nearest city, to museums, to stations. You will eventually see something that jumps out at you.
A drunken sailor? 
Anyway, I usually look at WIP maps, or search on google for interesting architecture accomplished by humans.
If I don’t know what i want to create, i open up Garrysmod and start to mess around in a random map.
Also browsing on garrysmod.org can sometimes give me inspiration.
I get really good ideas from art galleries, then I go home, open hammer, decide I can’t be bothered mapping, and go have a nap.
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http://www.thelighthouse.co.uk/content/press/35,437/userfiles/resized/main_article_437.jpg
Badass thing I saw at a gallery, there was a really awesome to scale house designed in wood. Then I left and forgot what it looked like.
Open up paint or some other program and start sketching blocks for buildings. It should start coming once you start drawing. Just lay it out in hammer and refine it later, that’s what I do.