Luminescent d(6) transition metal complexes have often been proposed as useful fluorophores for cell imaging due to their attractive photophysical attributes, but until very recently their actual applications have been scarce, and largely limited to ruthenium complexes in DNA and oxygen sensing. In the last few years, however, there has been an increasing number of reports of the design and application in cellular studies of a diverse range of Ir, Re and Ru complexes tailor-made for imaging applications. The design principles, uptake and cellular localisation of this new class of imaging agents are presented in context in this feature article.