The lipophilic natureo fo rganic dyes complicates their effectiveness in aqueous solutions. In this work we investigate threed ifferent strategies for achieving water-solubility of the diazaoxatriangulenium (DAOTA +)c hromophore: hydrophilic counter ions, aromatic sulfonationo ft he chromophore, and attachment of charged side chains. The long fluorescence lifetime(FLT, t f = 20 ns) of DAOTA + makes it a sensitive probet oa nalyze solvation and aggregation effects. Direct sulfonation of the chromophore was found to increase solubility drastically,b ut at the cost of greatly re-ducedq uantum yields (QYs) due to enhanced non-radiative deactivation processes. The introduction of either cationic (4) or zwitterionic side chains (5), however,b rings the FLT (t f = 18 ns) and QY (f f = 0.56) of the dye to the same level as the parent chromophorei na cetonitrile. Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopya lso reveals ah igh resistance to aggregation and non-specific binding in ah igh loading of bovines erum albumin (BSA). The results clearly show that addition of charged flexibles ide chains is preferable to directs ulfonation of the chromophore core.