A collaboration between synthetic chemists and cell biologists has led to the development of a range of novel luminescent transition metal complexes that are suitable for fixed and live cell imaging. The structurally related complexes utilizing either a rhenium or iridium platform to generate their luminescent properties; which results in imaging agents that exhibit a large Stoke shift, long emission life-times and resistance to photo-bleaching. These imaging agents are cell permeable, have rapid cellular uptake and low cytotoxicity, making them ideal for live cell imaging and other fluorescence based applications like flow cytometry. Interestingly, small chemical modifications of the molecular complexes alters their cellular distribution, making it possible to generate a family of imaging agents with exciting applications for cell biologists. Initial screening of a library of these molecular complexes has identified multiple imaging agents that exhibit different subcellular localisation. For example, ReZolve-L1 localises to compartments with high polar lipid content (e.g. PE, SM, and cholesterol), allowing the detection of polar lipids in lipid droplets and autophagosomes. ReZolve-ER detects the nuclear membrane and endoplasmic reticulum, while ReZolve-MC localises to mitochondria in live cells and live/fixed tissue. Specific bio-conjugation of the luminescent transition metal platform can also be achieved with, for example, fatty acids, which enables the visualisation of lipid uptake and localisation to specific compartments. This new class of imaging agents will provide cell biologists with greater flexibility in cell imaging and enable the acquisition of specific spatial temporal data for lipids and other important biomolecules.