Abstract: The general problem we address is to develop new methods in the study of projection constants of Banach spaces of multivariate polynomials. The relative projection constant of a subspace of a Banach is the smallest norm among all possible projections on onto , and the projection constant is the supremum of all relative projection constants of taken with respect to all possible super spaces . This is one of the most significant notions of modern Banach space theory and has been intensively studied since the birth of abstract operator theory. We focus on projection constants of Banach spaces of multivariate polynomials formed either by trigonometric polynomials defined on a compact topological group , which have Fourier coefficients supported in a finite set of characters; or analytic polynomials , which are defined on a Banach space and have monomial coefficients supported in a finite set of multi indices. Depending on the underlying structure (of the group, Banach space or index set), the goal is to prove precise formulas or asymptotically optimal estimates. Our general setting is flexible enough to handle a wide variety of Banach spaces of polynomials, including analytic polynomials on polydiscs, Dirichlet polynomials on the complex plane, and polynomials on Boolean cubes . Moreover, we get an explicit formula for the projection constant of the space of trace class operators. The methods developed here enable us to prove new estimates for important invariants such as the unconditional basis constant and the Gordon-Lewis constant for Banach spaces of multivariate polynomials.