What you should do...

001. Know the STORY. Of course, this is actually a basic thing for every designer. Know the story. Read few chaps auntil you have created something in your mind about what you want the poster to turn out.

002. Know the characters and choose the images correctly. Choose images for the right characters correctly. If the story has an OC with a bright attitude but the author is requesting for an angst or sad poster, then choose an image of a girl with a sad smile. IT IS IMPORTANT TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT IMAGE. Because even though the color or mood is a perfect angst, it will never be branded as that genre if the characters you put are smiling or winking or having a duck face.

003. Get our from your comfort zone. EXPERIMENT! This is what I always do. I always experiment so I thought it will be hard for me to do tutorials because if I do the graphic again, it will look different. lol. But anyway, Be creative. Get out of your comfort zone! Yes, you may be good at clipping images in your shapes but is that all you can do? Just because you're good at a certain point, doesn't mean you have to stay there. Experiment, do something else. You will never be branded as a designer if you keep on doing the same thing over and over again. Got it? :)

004. Next is before anything else, know the software you are using. Some designers (like me at first) get too excited once they knew how to