Phosphorescent iridium(III) complexes suffer from a strong aggregation quenching, limiting their use in solution-processed or crystalline organic light-emitting diodes. Here we report how an intramolecular stacking between a flexibly bridged bulky aromatic pendant group and the core of nonionic heteroleptic complex can be exploited to minimize the negative effects of this drawback. The stacked conformation provides a rigid sterical shielding of the polar molecular surface, improving photoluminescence quantum yield of the complex both in solution and crystalline state.